A trailer can turn an otherwise routine pickup manoeuvre into a tense few seconds when the angle between truck and trailer suddenly becomes too sharp. General Motors is exploring technology designed to recognize that danger before metal meets metal—or the combination reaches an uncontrollable position.
A recently published GM patent application describes a system that monitors the relationship between a tow vehicle and trailer, calculates how close the combination is to a potentially dangerous jackknife angle, and can respond with warnings or vehicle-control changes. The work has a distinctly Canadian connection: the three named inventors are based in Ontario. While the technology remains a patent-stage concept rather than a confirmed production feature, it shows how cameras, software and active steering could make one of towing’s most intimidating situations easier to manage.
GM’s Patent Targets the Moment a Trailer Gets Too Close
The technology appears in U.S. patent application US 2026/0264749 A1, titled “Trailer Jackknife Prevention.” GM Global Technology Operations filed the application on March 6, 2025, and it was published on September 10, 2026. The named inventors are Utkarsh Saini of Pickering, Ontario, along with Zachary Thomas Kroeze and Jackson Barry McGrory of Toronto. Rather than focusing primarily on how much weight a pickup can pull, their system addresses what happens when the geometry of the truck-trailer combination begins moving toward a dangerous angle.
At its core, the proposal compares the trailer’s current articulation angle with a calculated maximum angle. Articulation is simply the changing angle between the tow vehicle and trailer around their connection point. As that angle grows during a tight turn or manoeuvre, parts of the trailer can eventually approach the pickup’s bumper or body. The system is designed to identify that risk early enough for the vehicle or driver to react instead of discovering the limit through an expensive—and potentially frightening—collision.
Jackknifing Is More Complicated Than Ordinary Trailer Sway
Trailer sway and jackknifing are related towing concerns, but they are not the same problem. Sway typically describes repeated side-to-side oscillation of a trailer. Jackknifing involves excessive angular movement between the towing vehicle and trailer, potentially putting the two sections of the combination at a severe angle. Vehicle-dynamics research has long shown that an articulated vehicle behaves differently from a vehicle travelling by itself because forces generated by the trailer are transmitted back through the hitch.
Researchers have examined variables including speed, trailer loading, hitch load, braking, steering inputs and road conditions because each can influence stability. Once an articulated combination becomes seriously unstable, recovering can be difficult, particularly during abrupt steering or braking. GM’s new patent is narrower than a universal anti-sway system. Its main focus is monitoring articulation and avoiding an angle at which the trailer could collide with the tow vehicle or enter a jackknife condition. That distinction matters because the proposed technology is fundamentally a geometry-monitoring and vehicle-control system rather than a simple trailer-sway alarm.
A Camera Near the Hitch Becomes a Measuring Device
One of the most interesting elements is that GM proposes using equipment increasingly familiar on modern pickups: cameras and onboard processing. A rear-facing camera positioned to observe the towing connection could capture the pickup’s hitch, trailer coupler, trailer tongue and portions of the vehicle’s rear bodywork. Software would analyze those images continuously or periodically while the combination is moving rather than relying solely on a fixed mechanical sensor attached to the trailer.
That turns the camera into more than a digital rear-view mirror. The patent describes using image information to estimate the current trailer articulation angle and then comparing it with the allowable maximum for that particular truck-and-trailer combination. Other perception hardware could potentially complement the camera system, but optical imaging plays a central role in the disclosed approach. For a driver pulling a camper into a tight campsite or positioning a boat trailer around a crowded launch, the concept amounts to having a computer constantly watching the hitch area and measuring geometry that can be surprisingly difficult to judge accurately from the driver’s seat.
The Truck Could Learn the Safe Angle for Each Trailer
A single fixed warning angle would not work particularly well because trailers come in dramatically different shapes and sizes. A narrow utility trailer with a long tongue can behave very differently around the back of a pickup than a broad enclosed trailer whose front wall sits much closer to the hitch. GM’s patent therefore describes calculating the maximum articulation angle using information about both the towing vehicle and the trailer, including measurements such as vehicle width, wheelbase, trailer width, tongue length and hitch geometry.
One proposed method creates a virtual model of the connection. Software can effectively rotate the representation of the trailer around the hitch until part of it reaches the virtual boundary representing the rear of the vehicle. That point establishes the maximum permissible articulation angle. The patent also describes using predefined trailer profiles or measurements derived from camera imagery. In practical terms, the truck would not merely know that a trailer is attached. It could develop an understanding of how far that specific trailer can rotate before its physical dimensions create trouble.
Software Could Watch for the Trailer Entering a Danger Zone
GM’s engineers describe several ways to determine when the trailer is getting uncomfortably close. Images from a rear camera can be converted into a bird’s-eye-style view, with software identifying key points around the trailer body, tongue, coupler and vehicle. Those locations help establish the geometry needed to calculate the maximum articulation angle. The patent even allows for a driver to correct or add key points if the automated system does not perfectly recognize an unusual trailer.
Another approach is more direct. Because the location of the pickup’s bumper remains predictable relative to a permanently mounted camera, software can monitor a defined region of the image near the vehicle. If pixels within that normally stable region suddenly change because part of the trailer has entered it, the system can interpret that movement as evidence of an approaching contact or jackknife condition. The concept is similar to creating an invisible electronic boundary around the pickup. Instead of waiting until the trailer reaches the bumper, the computer watches for the visual signs that the separation is disappearing.
The System Could Do More Than Sound an Alarm
Detecting a dangerous angle is only half of GM’s proposal. The patent contemplates communicating with the driver through visual information, audible warnings or tactile alerts such as vibration. More significantly, it also describes situations in which the vehicle itself could respond. Depending on the configuration, the controller could alter steering, reduce speed, adjust acceleration or braking, or command another vehicle system to take corrective action intended to reduce the articulation angle.
That possibility separates the concept from a conventional parking warning that simply beeps faster as an obstacle approaches. Modern pickups already combine electronically controlled steering, braking, propulsion and cameras through networked controllers, providing the hardware foundation for more coordinated interventions. The exact response would depend on how a production system were engineered, and GM has not announced such a production implementation. Still, the principle is noteworthy: instead of merely telling the driver that the trailer is approaching its limit, the proposed system could potentially prevent the pickup from continuing a manoeuvre that would make the situation worse.
Four-Wheel Steering Makes the Idea Especially Relevant
The patent repeatedly discusses active rear steering, and there is a logical reason. Turning the rear wheels allows a large pickup to achieve impressive low-speed manoeuvrability, but tighter turning geometry can also change how quickly the angle between truck and trailer develops. GM already offers four-wheel steering on vehicles including the GMC Sierra EV and GMC Hummer EV, where rear-wheel movement can reduce the effective turning circle or enable special low-speed manoeuvres.
GM’s proposed system could calculate a rear-wheel steering limit according to the trailer’s current and maximum allowable articulation angles. If necessary, it could reduce the permitted rear-steering angle or disable active rear steering. One example contained in the patent calculates a 60-degree maximum trailer articulation angle and initially establishes an illustrative rear-steering limit of minus eight degrees, later updating that limit to minus six degrees as conditions change. Those figures are examples rather than universal limits, but they reveal the concept’s sophistication: the software could continuously change how much rear steering it permits as the trailer moves relative to the truck.
GM Has Already Built Much of the Supporting Technology
The proposal does not exist in isolation. GM has spent years adding towing-focused cameras, software and driver-assistance functions to Chevrolet and GMC trucks and SUVs. Its available Transparent Trailer technology combines a vehicle camera with an auxiliary trailer camera to create the impression of seeing through a compatible trailer. GM says the underlying camera architecture uses calibration, computer vision, three-dimensional geometry and real-time processing to keep those reconstructed views aligned as the vehicle and trailer move.
Super Cruise adds another piece of the puzzle. GM introduced hands-free trailering capability on selected 2022-model-year vehicles and currently offers it across a broader group of properly equipped trucks and SUVs. Its redesigned interface for the 2027 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra also automatically changes when a trailer is connected, bringing trailering information forward and providing specialized hitch-camera functionality. None of those features confirms that the newly patented jackknife-prevention system is headed to production, but they demonstrate that many of its required building blocks—cameras, trailer recognition, geometry calculations and electronic vehicle control—already exist inside GM’s ecosystem.
The Canadian Connection Goes Beyond Three Names on a Patent
The location of the inventors fits a broader pattern within General Motors. GM’s Canadian Technical Centre operates engineering facilities in Markham and Oshawa, Ontario, along with the McLaughlin Advanced Technology Track in Oshawa. The company describes the Canadian operation as its second-largest automotive software engineering and development cluster in North America, working on areas that include advanced driver assistance, infotainment, electrification, autonomous-vehicle software and vehicle controls.
GM said in August 2026 that its Canadian Technical Centre had more than 1,000 engineers, developers and technical experts involved in next-generation vehicle technology, software and testing. Canadian teams have also participated in the evolution of Super Cruise; GM previously identified engineers from the Canadian Technical Centre as key contributors to the technology. The jackknife-prevention filing therefore represents more than an isolated Canadian patent connection. It sits within a substantial Ontario engineering operation increasingly focused on the software, sensing and control systems that determine how modern vehicles behave—not simply on the mechanical components under the hood.
A Patent Application Is Not a Promise of a Production Feature
The most important qualification is that GM has not announced this jackknife-prevention concept as a production feature. The document published in September 2026 is a patent application, not evidence that a future Silverado, Sierra or other GM vehicle will definitely receive the system. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office normally publishes many utility patent applications before a patent is granted, generally around 18 months after the earliest relevant filing date. The application is currently identified as pending.
Automakers routinely patent technologies to protect engineering ideas, preserve future options and build intellectual-property portfolios. Some later reach production almost exactly as described; others change substantially or never appear in customer vehicles. The materials surrounding this filing do not identify a launch date or specific production model. Even so, the concept provides a revealing look at where towing assistance could be heading. Pickups have already learned to check trailer lights, display hidden areas and assist with highway towing. The next step may be teaching the truck to recognize when a seemingly ordinary turn is becoming too tight—and intervene before the trailer reaches the point nobody towing wants to see.
