In Ford’s system, the delivery vehicle becomes the hub while the drones serve as spokes. Drones would be docked and launched from on top of the vehicle, which then pilots the aircraft to their drop-off location. Then, the drones would communicate with nearby Ford vehicles to find the closest place to dock.

The model laid out by Ford could have a major impact on drone delivery and last-mile delivery more broadly. As it stands, commercial drone delivery services overwhelmingly operate out of stationary hubs…

Ford’s patent actually resembles one published by Amazon about a year ago. In Amazon’s model, delivery vans would instead release a fleet of small, ground-based drones…

The automaker’s model is also similar to a system proposed by Walmart last month. The world’s largest retailer apparently is looking to combine drones with autonomous delivery vehicles to add a failsafe to its last mile.