Has Ford finally solved the bed hog problem?

• Ford builds lane-keeping bed
• It joins the company's noise reducing kennel

Whether it’s new love or an established relationship, the intimacy of sleeping together can often be marred by one half of the couple unwittingly pushing the other toward the edge of the bed.

This has obvious implications to sleep quality for the person being pushed, while the retaliatory elbow to the guts does nothing for the bed hog’s slumber.

As a result, bed-hogging, along with snoring, results in a one-in-four of people in a relationship saying they sleep better alone.

However, sleeping in separate beds – a phenomenon now so popular it has a name: “sleep divorces” – isn’t a satisfactory option for many couples.

So Ford’s European engineering team has developed the “Lane Keeping Bed” that applies advanced driver assistance technology to ensure that even the most selfish space invader stays firmly ‘in their lane’ through the night.

Lane keeping assist, which Ford calls Lane-Keeping Aid, monitors the road markings ahead and actively supports the driver to safely guide the vehicle back into the correct lane by “nudging” the steering wheel in the correct direction; this complements other camera-based systems that help drivers avoid inadvertently straying out of their lane.

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In the bedroom, the technology uses pressure sensors to identify when someone has strayed from their side of the bed and gently returns them to where they should be with the help of an integrated conveyor belt.

The prototype Lane-Keeping Bed is part of a series of Ford Interventions that apply automotive expertise to tackle every day – or in this case, every night – problems.

These include the Noise-Cancelling Dog Kennel, that uses active noise cancellation tech found in vehicles such as the Ford Endura to protect dogs from the distressing sounds associated with fireworks and thunderstorms. Gives new meaning to being in the doghouse, doesn't it?

Now, if Ford can add noise cancelling technology to the Lane-Keeping Bed to also drown out snoring…