Ford Motor Co. received a US patent on its plans for an "autonomous vehicle with reconfigurable seats" earlier this month.
The seats can rotate and fold while the vehicle is in motion, and can even retract the steering wheel on the dashboard to create more space in the cabin of the vehicle.
Among the available settings is a form of rolling living room in the front seats can be turned back 180 degrees to nozzles face the back row.
The front seats can also be folded and used as a footrest for the rear seat passengers.
This seat is similar to reconfigurable interior design futuristic autonomous concept of Mercedes-Benz unveiled earlier this year at the International CES in Las Vegas.
All four seats in the Mercedes concept can also be rotated to face each other in an atmosphere of lounge.
Ford patent, filed in November, states that autonomous vehicles only time passengers will be required to select a destination, allowing passengers to non-driving focus on mid-career activities.
The plan for a vehicle cabin is reimagined latest step in Ford in the development of autonomous vehicles, but does not show the automaker will offer technology and design presented in the patent anytime soon.
"We submit patents on innovative ideas as a normal course of business," he said Ford spokesman Said Deep wrote in an email. "Presentations patents help protect our ideas, but does not necessarily indicate future business plans or products."
While Ford is moving ahead with the autonomous technological development still lags behind many of its competitors.
In the luxury segment alone, Audi, Mercedes and BMW are already preparing to offer advanced features autonomous within the next year.
Ford is making moves to catch up. In June, the company said it would move its development the self-driving technology of its new advanced engineering operations in Silicon Valley, as it entered the stage of advanced engineering development of autonomous vehicles.
Installation engineers in Silicon Valley are part of the new autonomous equipment global Ford vehicle.
The Business Insider website reported on Wednesday patent.
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