Business Insider -- This month, the United States Patent and Trademark Office approved a patent application from a group of Ford employees for an "autonomous car with reconfigurable seats."

It's the latest step in Ford's move into the world of self-driving cars, and it comes on the heels of the company's launch of an advanced engineering program headed by the company's Research and Innovation Center in Palo Alto, California.

The company also has partnerships with MIT and Stanford to conduct research into the challenges of automated driving.

According to the patent, filed by Mark Cuddihy, Manoharprasad Rao, and Jialiang Le, the design calls for an automobile capable of operating without the input of a driver.

At the same the vehicle is equipped with seats capable of changing its layout.

This means that when the car is in autonomous mode, the passenger cabin can be converted into a lounge or a more socially conducive setting — turning the average family sedan into a road-going private jet.