ALEXANDRIA, Va., Sept. 23 -- United States Patent no. 12,420,876, issued on Sept. 23, was assigned to Rivian IP Holdings LLC.
"Deployable diffuser" was invented by Andrew McAllister (Newport Coast, Calif.), Zackery Patrick Borton (Howell, Mich.), Jeremy Green (Wiltshire, Great Britain) and Veselin Angelov (West Midlands, Great Britain).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "The system can include a diffuser disposed at a rear of a vehicle. A side of the diffuser can be positioned to face the earth. The system can include an actuator coupled with the diffuser and configured to deploy the diffuser to adjust drag on the vehicle. The system can include a sensor configured to detect an obstacle. The system...