Ford Might Place Rear-Facing Seats in the Trunk Just Like Tesla

Back in 2021, on June 1st, Ford filed a patent for transformable rear seats. It was published on December 1st, 2022 and assigned serial number 0379780.

Now the Blue Oval brand is coming up with what its inventors call a rear-facing tailgate seating assembly. As similar as it sounds to what they did last year, it actually isn't.

But this means that, sooner or later, we might get to see (and travel in, too) seats that are positioned backwards in a third row. Furthermore, the diagrams included in the pattern application show that the third row of seats is mounted not in a conventional position, like you’d see in your usual three-row seven-seater. But they find room in the trunk, where the luggage would normally be placed.

The third row of seats usually folds down to extend the luggage compartment depending on the items the occupants need to take with them. But the sketches added by Ford in the patent application show the seats can be stowed into a well in the floor.

When deployed, the seats can move and double as a rear-facing unit when the tailgate is down. Both seats back there are attached to a rail, so that they can slide forward and backward, depending on the needs. Their backrests can fold down or sit upright, and there is also a footrest. A rear bench configuration or individual seats would be available.

The space at the back of the car can be used for traveling, as well as for leisure, when the vehicle is not in motion. What vehicle that would be, Ford says nothing about that. But from the photos, it seems that the system would work in an SUV. LEDs located under the seat can make operation smoother.

If this is hard to come around, you don’t need to use your imagination. Just remember that Tesla mounted similar seats in the Model S sedan, Model X, and in the Model Y crossovers.

Ford has been patenting various seat-related solutions for the past years. One refers to a seat assembly with a pivotable armrest and airbag, another one with a liquid cooling system in January 2023 a wet detection and mitigation system, but also a seat bottom-mounted airbag, designed to protect pets. Interchangeable seat cushions and a fully automated seat positioning system were also on the list. And last, but not least, here we are, facing the rear-facing seats.

Tesla came up with the idea of trunk-mounted seats more than a decade ago

For the first few years of production, starting 2012, Tesla offered a kit of two rear-facing seats that would be installed in the trunk of the Model S sedan.

The option was later discontinued, because it turned out to be mostly useless. You could not fit two adults back there. Anyone above 5 feet tall would have bumped their head against the headliner. You could not fit children in those seats, either, because they need special restraints on board cars.

In 2019, Elon Musk announced the arrival of the Model S Plaid. The high-performance sedan was to have third-row jump seats and so would the Model X. Prototypes of the crossover testing on public roads were spotted having two seats in the back behind the second row, but not facing rearward, as previously advertised, but forward. Very unlike them, Tesla eventually chose the beaten path.

The Model X and Y both sport a third row of seats facing forward. It is a viable layout, since there is room in there for kids and teenagers.

Rolls-Royce has seats in the trunk, but you can’t travel in them

But you must know that these are different from the trunk-located seats that the Rolls-Royce Cullinan can be specced with. Those tailgate seats, that the British luxury carmaker calls the "Viewing Suite," are part of the Recreation Module.

The owner of the Cullinan SUV just needs to push a button and two rear-facing seats pop out on either side of a retractable cocktail table. "Truly the best seat in the house," Rolls-Royce claims. Of course. Unless you’re not on the move. You can’t possibly travel in those.

The invention Ford is now trying to patent is a little bit of both what Tesla offered and Rolls-Royce offers. Their third-row seats are good to travel in, but also fit for – let’s say – a picnic. Maybe, just maybe, Ford will offer a picnic that that is well under what Rolls-Royce is asking for the 12-piece picnic basket. That would be $46,000. And no, the seats option is not included.