With an upsurge in the number of cab services, opting for cab services instead of driving personally is becoming a viable option for people. Therefore, cars are increasing being used as public transport. A typical cab will pick-up, and drop 15 passengers a day. Cleanliness obviously becomes an issue as the number of passengers in a cab increases. A recently published patent application from Ford describes an innovative solution to curb this rather new problem.

The patent application discloses a vehicle cleaning system that receives environmental data including cabin humidity data, cabin temperature data, cabin surface sunlight data, surface moisture data, cabin airflow data, and the like, from multiple sensors in the car.

Then, this data is analyzed by an on-board computer to find out potential contaminants (e.g. bacteria, fungi, and virus), and decide a required UV dosage to clean the cabin. The UV dosage is set by adjusting the wavelength, intensity, and exposure duration of the UV light. The UV dosage is set so as not to harm the interior of the vehicle, like the interior trim, and moldings.

Then, the computer controls the operation of the UV light to start the cleaning. The computer also controls other cabin variables like temperature, and moisture to limit the growth of the contaminants. What’s even interesting is that the computer detects human presence and stops operation of the UV light.

It remains to be seen how soon this system is implemented by auto manufacturers worldwide.

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