• Rivian’s working on a drone that could replace a human spotter for off-roading
• The drone would communicate with the vehicle and guide the driver over obstacles
• Jeep and Mercedes-Benz have investigated the use of drones as off-road spotters

Spotters are an important part of off-road driving, helping drivers choose the proper line through difficult terrain. Rivian believes drones could do a similar job, a recently discovered patent filing indicates.

In the filing, which was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on May 23, after being filed by Rivian on Nov. 18, 2022, the automaker discusses the use of drones as spotters for off-roading.

Rivian discusses equipping drones with sensors and having them fly ahead of a vehicle, while maintaining a line-of-sight alignment with the vehicle’s current direction of travel. The drone would then be able to map the path the vehicle is traveling and provide guidance to the driver, Rivian states in the application.

The drone would position itself autonomously, according to the application, and would be equipped with a combination of cameras and direction-finding sensors, potentially encompassing radar, lidar, and sonar. This would allow the drone to not only visually identify obstacles, but also measure the distance to them.

With this data, the drone would essentially do the work of a human spotter. Instead of hand signals, the drone could use colored lights or displays with simple directions, such as “left” or “right,” Rivian suggests. Directions could also be relayed to an in-vehicle display screen, which would allow for more detail, the automaker notes.

Automakers have been toying with drones for awhile now. The Jeep Safari concept, one of the batch of concepts unveiled at the 2017 Easter Jeep Safari, had a drone landing pad on its roof. Several companies, including Mercedes-Benz, have also looked at vehicle-launched drones for delivery services.