US Patent Issued to Ford Global Technologies on Dec. 30 for "Vehicle ride sharing system and method using smart modules" (Michigan Inventors)

ALEXANDRIA, Va., Dec. 31 -- United States Patent no. 12,511,586, issued on Dec. 30, was assigned to Ford Global Technologies LLC (Dearborn, Mich.).

"Vehicle ride sharing system and method using smart modules" was invented by Pietro Buttolo (Dearborn Heights, Mich.), Stuart C. Salter (White Lake, Mich.), James Stewart Rankin II (Novi, Mich.), James J. Surman (Clinton Township, Mich.), Annette Lynn Huebner (White Lake, Mich.), Jeffrey A. Wallace (Walled Lake, Mich.) and Cornel Lewis Gardner (Romulus, Mich.).

According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A vehicle sharing system includes a vehicle having interior transceiver modules associated with different passenger seating areas and a vehicle computing system...