ALEXANDRIA, Va., June 9 -- United States Patent no. 12,286,159, issued on April 29, was assigned to Zoox Inc. (Foster City, Calif.).
"Side-impact crash structure" was invented by Ramanjaneya Reddy Butukuri (Union City, Calif.), Michael Curno Orr (San Francisco), Thomas Andrew Stoddart (Mountain View, Calif.) and Ashley Williams (San Francisco).
According to the abstract* released by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office: "A side-impact crash structure may be positioned proximate an end of a vehicle to reduce impact forces imparted to an occupant during a side collision. The side-impact crash structure may include energy absorbers positioned on lateral sides of the vehicle between the passenger compartment and a longitudinal end of the vehicl...