Ford teases tech tackling trailer cut-in crashes

Ford has filed a patent hinting it is working on a system that can help prevent a trailer being towed by one of its vehicles from hitting anything when the vehicle turns.

Sideswiping – known as “cut-in” or “cheating” in the trucking industry – occurs while cornering when the trailer follows a different, tighter path to the vehicle towing it.

It’s why trucks carry the “Do not overtake while turning” warnings – sometimes to get the room they need to turn, they need to use both lanes of a two-lane road.

Cut-in occurs in turns as the trailer follows a shorter path than the tow vehicle, making its turning circle significantly smaller than for the vehicle. The tighter the turn, the more cut-in experienced.

It means that while a tow vehicle will easily clear an obstacle such as a pump at the petrol station, if a driver is not paying attention to the trailer boat they are towing may sideswipe it.

Likewise, someone parking a boat trailer in a tight spot at the boat ramp could run into trouble if they don’t swing wide enough while driving in.

Trailers can also suffer from “cut-out” where the forces working on a trailer towed at high speed push it out of a corner compared with the vehicle towing it.

Ford’s system will use sensors to estimate the length of the trailer from its tow hitch to the axle, and then draw a virtual path of where the trailer’s wheels will take it.

According to the patent documents, if the system senses that the trailer is likely to collide with something the vehicle towing it has avoided, the vehicle can step in and help the driver steer the trailer safely around it, or at least work out how much time it has and then minimise the damage by slamming on the brakes.

The system Ford has teased will need visual cues on the trailer – it suggests a series of remote sensors stuck on the mudguards using magnets, and in line with the axle – to help the vehicle work out if everything will get safely around the corner.

Having to stick things on a trailer so that a car can sense where it is has been tried before. In 2016 Land Rover announced it had developed technology that allowed even novice drivers with little experience to back a trailer with confidence, but only if a big triangle-shaped target was mounted vertically on the trailer at a set distance from the rear of the tow vehicle.

Ford Global Technologies, the US-based global car-maker’s new-gizmo skunkworks, originally submitted the idea to the US Patent and Trademarks Office in late 2019, but the documents have only just been published.

If it is developed, it is expected to roll out first to larger tow vehicles such as the Ford F-150, which will be able tow more than 6000kg when powered using fossil fuels, or 5700kg when in petrol-electric hybrid form.

The maximum length of a vehicle, including its trailer, allowed on Australian roads without a special permit is 19.0 metres.