Ford Has a ‘Lane-Keeping Bed’ – Now You Can Say You’ve Seen It All

Bed-hoggers beware


Ford wants to make bed-hogging a thing of the past.

Let’s face it: We live in a bold new world. From technologies that keep us safe in the car like automatic emergency braking and rear cross traffic alert to lane keeping assist features. Thanks to Ford, you can take some of that technology off the road to deal with the bed-hogging partner in your life.

Confused? Admittedly, Ford’s ‘Lane-Keeping Bed’ is a bit tough to wrap your head around at first. But that hasn’t stopped the company from forging ahead and building one. It uses technology ‘inspired’ by Ford’s lane keeping features to keep your encroaching partner at bay during the night. More or less, it uses pressure sensors and a conveyor belt-like system to shuffle the bed-hogger from side to side, wherever there’s available room. Ford’s approach to this invention is something to deal with sleep deprivation. It makes sense: We all experience distraction, irritability and a range of other health issues when we don’t get enough sleep.

Ford Lane-Keeping Bed
At any rate, it looks like a cool (and comfortable) bed. [Photo: Ford]

It’s a neat idea, even if it is a one-off. Unlike the new Explorer or Super Duty, don’t expect Ford to put this into production anytime soon. Even so, we can think of a few issues engineers may need to hammer out before the Lane-Keeping Bed is ready for primetime.

From the birds-eye view, it’ looks like there are some flaps that tilt up to change the sheets. Still, it doesn’t look easy unless the mattress itself lifts up. On another note, I’m sure couples in particular may want to be close in some circumstances, which would make the Lane Keeping Bed annoying to live with on a nightly basis. And no, that’s not what I meant. Although, that would also be annoying. Here’s to an override button.

At any rate, it’s definitely interesting to see car technologies adapted to other parts of our life. Maybe one day there will be a practical version of this bed we can all buy.