Company patents
ZF CV SYSTEMS GLOBAL GMBH
ZF CV Systems Global GmbH's patent strategy reveals a strong, albeit fluctuating, commitment to core automotive safety and control systems, with Vehicle Brake Systems representing 38.5% of its portfolio. While there was a significant surge in filings for Vehicle Control Systems (YoY +85.7%) and Vehicle Steering & Bodies (YoY +266.7%) in 2025, indicating an emerging focus on these areas, the sharp decline in Batteries & Fuel Cells (YoY -100.0% in 2026 so far) suggests a shifting priority away from this sector, despite its previous growth in 2024.
Patent Trend by Technology Area
Yearly patent publications since 2023
Product themes
Product-level themes inferred from filings since 2023, with category chips showing where each theme appears. Select a theme to filter the patents below.
301 US filings (since 2023) · 12 categories · 30 themes
Systems and methods for controlling electric parking brakes, including their actuators, redundancy features, and diagnostic capabilities for ensuring reliable operation.
Control systems for managing vehicle braking and maintaining a stationary state, including brake pedal actuation sensing, automatic brake hold functions, and coordination with parking brakes.
Software-driven control strategies, sensor integration, and diagnostic methods for enhancing braking performance, driver assistance systems (ADAS), and autonomous vehicle braking functions.
Actuators, control, and components for converting electrical energy into braking force, often involving motors, spindles, and friction elements, particularly for vehicle applications.
Methods and components for optimizing the performance, efficiency, and control of electric motors, inverters, and power converters within electric vehicle and hybrid vehicle drivetrains.
Technologies for safely and efficiently connecting, stabilizing, and maneuvering trailers, including hitch mechanisms, load sensing, and trailer-specific steering or stabilization.
Systems and methods utilizing sensors and control logic to detect, measure, and report the wear status of brake components, enabling predictive maintenance or safety alerts.
Electronic, hydraulic, or steer-by-wire systems that precisely control vehicle direction, often incorporating feedback loops, compensation, and adaptation for various driving conditions or vehicle types.
Addresses the design and arrangement of electric motors, transmissions, and associated power electronics (like inverters) to form integrated drive units for hybrid or electric vehicles, including specific components like busbars and electric brakes.
Systems utilizing various sensors (e.g., cameras, radar, sonar) to perceive the vehicle's surrounding environment, detect objects, and process/display relevant information to the driver for enhanced awareness, assistance in maneuvers, or safety.
Valves specifically designed for managing fluid power in hydraulic or pneumatic systems, including components for pressure regulation, flow direction, and system centering.
Design and optimization of the core hydraulic elements of a brake system, including master cylinders, valves, pistons, fluid reservoirs, and their associated sealing mechanisms.
Transmissions designed to provide a continuous range of gear ratios between fixed limits, often employing ball-planetary, toroidal, or belt-pulley mechanisms, and including their control systems for stable operation in various directions.
Systems and methods for enhancing the safety of vulnerable road users (pedestrians, cyclists) by improving their detection, prediction, and precise localization relative to the vehicle, often leveraging communication technologies and specialized markers.
Technologies for efficiently delivering power to electric vehicles, encompassing fast charging, wireless charging, and smart grid integration, alongside vehicle-side control and management of the charging process.
Methods and apparatus for detecting objects and determining their three-dimensional position and orientation (pose) using imagery or point cloud data, often for navigation, surveying, or environmental understanding.
Algorithms and systems for planning and executing complex vehicle maneuvers, often involving cooperation with other vehicles or infrastructure, to optimize traffic flow, avoid collisions, or navigate challenging scenarios. This includes lane changes, cut-ins, and traffic congestion.
Methods and components for converting power into mechanical motion to drive pump mechanisms, encompassing electric motors, hydraulic actuators, and specialized motion converters like ball screws or solenoids.
Mechanisms and control systems for precisely moving valve elements, often involving electric motors, cams, solenoids, or pneumatic/hydraulic pilots, to achieve desired flow or position.
Integration and control of electronic components within the vehicle, including power distribution, thermal management for integrated circuits, and advanced user interfaces such as voice assistants, often involving specialized housings or trim.
Systems designed to manage the temperature of multiple components in electric or hybrid vehicles, such as batteries, electric motors, power electronics, and the passenger cabin, often using shared or interconnected cooling/heating circuits.
Innovations in the materials, manufacturing, and assembly of vehicle body components to enhance rigidity, crashworthiness, and functional integration.
Utilizing vehicle lights for communication, warnings, or signaling to other vehicles, pedestrians, or external systems, beyond basic turn signals and brake lights.
Technologies that enable automated or mobile device-controlled access to a vehicle, including keyless entry, remote functions, and power-assisted steps or pedals designed to facilitate easier ingress and egress.
Systems that monitor a vehicle operator's physiological state, attentiveness, or behavior using in-cabin sensors and machine learning to enhance safety or personalize vehicle functions.
Techniques and architectures for ensuring the reliability, fault tolerance, and performance validation of autonomous driving systems, including redundant computing platforms and perception system monitoring.
Valves engineered to automatically open or close based on pressure differentials, preventing over-pressurization, controlling flow direction, or suppressing backflow in fluid systems.
Techniques and hardware for autonomous systems to gather and interpret data about their surroundings, including obstacle detection, object recognition, and depth estimation, to inform control decisions.
Integrated systems for managing parking facilities, guiding vehicles to available spots, and providing notifications, often leveraging sensors, communication, and remote control.
Methods and systems for improving the quality of video streams, generating intermediate frames, or continuously locating and following objects within a sequence of images, even under occlusion.
Patents
Showing 1-10 of 332