In the world of commercial vehicles, downtime is the enemy of profit, and fleets do everything they can to ensure that maintenance is completed on a regular basis to prevent it. That’s precisely where Ford’s patent comes into play – it aims to use robots to inspect fleet vehicles.
These robots would be capable of detecting when a vehicle has a maintenance issue using various sensors, then navigate itself to that vehicle and rectify the problem on the spot. At the same time, the robot would also be capable of performing routine maintenance tasks like changing oil, checking tire pressure, and even washing the vehicle, or charging an EV that needs it.
