US 11,834,105 B2
Deployable fairing system for use with vehicles
Daniel Burrows, San Mateo, CA (US); Burk Kladde, Chandler, AZ (US); Dagan Trnka, Durham, NC (US); Ada Sierraalta, San Francisco, CA (US); Roger LeMesurier, San Francisco, CA (US); Adam Baumgartner, San Mateo, CA (US); and Pratik Bhagwat, Phoenix, AZ (US)
Assigned to TRUCKLABS, INC.
Filed by TruckLabs, Inc., Phoenix, AZ (US)
Filed on Aug. 25, 2022, as Appl. No. 17/895,435.
Application 17/895,435 is a continuation of application No. 16/810,598, filed on Mar. 5, 2020, granted, now 11,427,267.
Claims priority of provisional application 62/814,725, filed on Mar. 6, 2019.
Prior Publication US 2023/0090039 A1, Mar. 23, 2023
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B62D 35/00 (2006.01); B62D 53/08 (2006.01)
CPC B62D 35/001 (2013.01) [B62D 53/08 (2013.01)] 18 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A deployable fairing system, comprising:
a deployable fairing which is deployable across a gap region between a rear of a cab of a tractor and a vertically extending front of a trailer, deployable fairing which is deployable into a plurality of fairing configurations from a fully retracted configuration to a fully deployed configuration, and at least one intermediate configuration between the fully retracted configuration and the fully deployed configuration;
at least one actuator drivingly coupled to move the deployable fairing into the plurality of fairing configurations;
at least one sensor responsive to a presence or an absence of one or more of a cooling unit, a heating unit or a nose cone that extends forward from the vertically extending front of the trailer into the gap region; and
a controller communicatively coupled to the at least one sensor to receive information representative of the presence or the absence of the one or more of the cooling unit, the heating unit or the nose cone in the gap region, and communicatively couple to control the at least one actuator in response to at least the presence or the absence of the one or more of the cooling unit, the heating unit or the nose cone in the gap region to deploy the deployable faring into at least one intermediate configuration between the fully retracted configuration and the fully deployed configuration and to stop deploying the deployable faring with the deployable faring in the at least one intermediate configuration.