Ford

The future heralded by driverless cars promises to be safer - mostly - but also, probably, a lot more boring. When you're not stuck in gridlock, the act of driving can be rather fun, so what to do when the car itself is doing that?

If Ford has any say in it, you'll be kicking back and watching a movie on your windscreen while cruising down the motorway.


The American motor company has filed a patent for an "Autonomous Vehicle Entertainment System" to be used in self-driving cars. In simple terms, that's a windscreen that turns into a 50-inch plus movie screen.

From the accompanying image, Ford's mock-up envisages a drop-down projector screen as the main viewing method. Ford suggests that viewing material could be transferred to smaller screens when the driver is in control, "such as a display in the dashboard".

The abstract for the patent, filed in the US at the start of March, describes this screen-switching feature in detail.


It reads, "the entertainment system controller presents media content on a first display while the vehicle is operating in the autonomous mode and on a second display when the vehicle is operating in a non-autonomous mode. A method includes determining whether a vehicle is operating in an autonomous mode [....] and transferring presentation of the media content to a second display when the vehicle is operating in a non-autonomous mode."

Although Ford is putting considerable effort into driverless cars (it's even pretty confident they won't kill people), in-car cinemas might be a bit further off. Ford spokesperson told Forbes "We submit patents on innovative ideas as a normal course of business. Patent applications are intended to protect new ideas but aren’t necessarily an indication of new business or product plans."

It could be a while before you can kick back and watch Mad Max or play Rocket League from the comfort of your front seat, but with the idea out there and autonomous cars getting smarter, it may not actually be too far off.