US Patent Issued to Ford Global Technologies on Sept. 8 for "Systems and methods for moving a vehicle using externally mounted HMI" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 8 -- United States Patent no. 12,728,722, issued on Sept. 8, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).

"Systems and methods for moving a vehicle using externally mounted HMI" was invented by Scott Steadmon Thompson (Belleville, Mich.), John Eric Rollinger (Troy, Mich.), Pietro Buttolo (Dearborn Heights, Mich.), Douglas Raymond Martin (Canton, Mich.), David Hancock (South Rockwood, Mich.) and Matthew Ryan Preston (Whitmore Lake, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle includes a powerplant and a body. The body defines a passenger cabin and a box and having a tailgate mounted to the box. A step assembly is associated with the box and includes ...