GM has filed a patent application for a new type of tow hitch designed to work on vehicles with a four-wheel steering system.
This GM patent filing has been assigned application number US 2021/0380109 with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and was published on December 9th, 2021. It’s titled “system and method for determining a hitch angle for controlling a vehicle with active rear steering” and lists Canadian engineers Sepehr Pourrezaei Khaligh and Akram M. Abdel-Rahman as the inventors.
According to the patent filing, this tow hitch design uses a computer processor to “estimate a rate of change of a hitch angle between a trailer and vehicle” in vehicles equipped with four-wheel steering. The estimated rate of change of the hitch angle, in this instance, would be based on the turn angle of the rear wheels of the vehicle, as well as the speed of the vehicle and its angular velocity. In other words, this technology would use steering input/angle, as well as the vehicle’s speed and the angular velocity of the vehicle/trailer, to automatically adjust the hitch angle when towing a trailer.
The patent notes that driver assistance systems for towing, such as steering assistance and screen guidelines on a digital display screen, are currently not compatible on vehicles with rear-wheel steering, as they are unable to properly predict/detect the hitch angle of the trailer. This would result in inaccurate steering assistance/guidance graphics. This trailer hitch design aims to solve this problem, ensuring the vehicle’s driver assistance systems can properly predict the hitch angle of a trailer and enable towing assist features in future GM trucks with four-wheel steer.
As GM Authority reported previously, the 2024 Chevy Silverado EV will offer a Max Towing Package that will include four-wheel steering. This feature will ensure the battery-electric pickup is maneuverable even when towing a large trailer behind it, which could be helpful in cities/metro areas and on job sites. This patent filing could therefore be for this application, although GM has not yet mentioned this innovative trailer hitch in any official media material for the Silverado EV.
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Comments
The 4-wheel steer system is so overlooked on trucks – I had a 2004 Silverado with the Quadrasteer 4-wheel steering system and it was so awesome, you could pull a U-turn anywhere and easily negotiate getting in and out of tight parking lots. It made towing so much easier too – when backing up and needing to make corrections you just needed to turn the steering wheel the opposite way you usually do and the rear of the truck would move over to quickly correct your path of travel instead of pulling way forward then backing up again to get the corrections to work. It’s too bad it was marketed so poorly.
Dude…. upper case GM was awesome! 8.1 vortec with an Allison and quadrasteer and a pro tech bed. Those were the days they were leading.
Simple math, a caveman can do it, no need for a patent.
I think GM authority purposely puts the most ugly pictured trucks on here they can. the EV truck looks like a plastic piece of crap which it is. these light vehicles ride like crap , sway in the wind or get sucked in when you pass a tractor trailer. GM with there black grills, black bumpers , black blown plastic interior , black wall good for a year tires , unfinished black pl;astic all over the exterior , GM junk
Hay mickey why don’t you comment on the subject, as in FOUR-WHEEL STEER MECHANISM instead of criticizing a particular vehicle and listing all the things that you don’t like about it. The vehicle pictured is simply presented as an illustration of a vehicle that will have the four-wheel steer device.
because this is America , and freedom of speech, and I say it like it is. Possibly you think I should act like the democrats and sugar coat and make pretend. Lets go Brandon
Mickey, once again you missed the point altogether. You didn’t say it like it is, you said it like you think.
Go watch CNN and MSDNC , you’ll be ok