As someone who's observed the process for these patents, typically the company just patents anything it thinks it can, regardless of whether or not the idea is practical or if they have any interest in bringing it to market. It doesn't even need to relate to their core business. Just cause they filed a patent, does not mean they spent any time determining if it was a good idea. Someday one of these crazy patents might prove valuable so they want as many as they can.

Here’s a quick tip, if you can think in 10 seconds a problem with this, the engineers that work on these projects for YEARS probably already thought of it.

Then why do so many cars have fucking touchscreen infotainment systems?

A processor that can safely handle problems on the road does not exist. And if a pseudo trailer exists with it and a drive train, it's just an autonomous electric car. Buying two electric cars will not be price competitive with buying a larger vehicle for cargo/towing capacity, especially considering the additional hassle on the user (have to store two expensive vehicles, have to set up a pseudo tow between the two anytime you think you might need the capacity). So people will still buy large vehicles, there definitely won't be a switch "overnight". Besides, most of them already are bought based on an overstated/oversold need, making the purchase less rational will have a marginal, but not sea-changing, impact on buying habits. Encryption is good, but plenty of companies and individuals get hacked today, it will stop the vast majority of attack vectors but the idea of it stopping all attack vectors is borderline laughable. Why is landfilling trailers a positive thing? Preemptively replacing gear that is perfectly operational is part of the toxic consumerism cycle that has put our environment in this mess.

Speaking as an engineer, we may think about the best solution to a problem for years, but that doesn't mean we are solving the right problem

2 - People bitch all the time about Giant Dually Trucks™ that are just used for daily driving. Well, pulling trailers on the weekend is why a lot of people have the excuse for this. If we can eliminate the need for the heavy tow vehicle, then you can just drive a small sedan and still be able to go glamping on the weekends.

How do you think this 'little towing-robot-car thing' is going to tow, steer and break a heavy trailer safely on the highway?

It got to be heavy for itself, needs a big battery pack, powerful motor... It's basically got to be an F150 itself. Nice if you don't need daily drive it, but it cost almost as much and won't actually be very environment-friendly either I assume.

I would buy this, assuming it's reliable over an f150 in a heart beat. If they can actually get it working reliably they will print money. I'd easily drop 15k on something like this. Fuck you can even share the cost between family members and friends.