Is Ford Working On Deployable Door Screens For The Bronco?

One of the party tricks of the new Ford Bronco (and, for that matter, the Jeep Wrangler) is the ability to entirely remove the doors and run around with a nearly entirely open cockpit. It has some genuinely practical use in off-roading scenarios, giving occupants a better view of obstacles, but more than that, who doesn’t like the idea of running around in a car with no doors?

Obviously, it does bring with it some possible safety issues, leaving passengers entirely exposed to the elements – there’s only so much a seatbelt will do if a car with no doors on it tips over or gets hit from the side.

It’s probably with that in mind that Ford filed this strange patent with the US Patent and Trademark Office back in 2020, not long after the revived Bronco was revealed. It’s just been granted and spotted by Motor1, and shows a concept for deployable motorised screens that would whirr into place with the doors removed to provide some extra protection.

The patent says the screens may be made of mesh or a woven polymer, suggesting that they’d be flexible and breathable to maintain the sense of openness provided by having no doors. What’s most interesting, though, is that the patent also makes provisions for the screens to deploy automatically by way of pyrotechnics – yes, explosives – if a vehicle impact is detected.

It seems, then, that they’re not really designed to offer the same level of protection as proper doors, but would at least keep flailing limbs inside the car in the event of a crash. They could also have other purposes, including keeping debris and insects out of the cabin.

It may well be that Ford filed this patent on a ‘just-in-case’ basis and they have no plans to develop it further, but it’s nevertheless an interesting idea that we could see pop up on a future off-roader from the blue oval at some point.