Ford is thinking about building an air force.
The automaker has received a patent for an innovative technology that could make your AAA card obsolete.
It describes a way to use a swarm of quadricopter drones to jump start a gasoline-powered car's dead battery without having to send a service truck.
The patent depicts a "plurality of drones" equipped with batteries and robotic arms working in concert to connect to the battery.
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One designated master drone leads the fleet to the disabled vehicle, where it can remotely unlock and open a power hood.
It then uses a camera and sensors to coordinate the drones connecting to the battery and each other in order to deliver power to the vehicle the same way a set of jumper cables would.
The instructions for how to do that could be stored in each individual car itself, or provided to the drones from a central command server.
According to the patent, first reported on by Barron's, this system could be used to assist both human operated and fully autonomous vehicles.
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Ford hasn't confirmed any plans to put the patent to use, but has recently filed for several involving drone technology.
One features a drone that's installed in the glove compartment or trunk of an autonomous car that could be used to inspect a vehicle and identify damage that needs repair.
What Ford hasn't come up with is a drone that can fix a broken drone.
At least it doesn't have a patent for that yet.
