A tonneau cover can turn a pickup truck's bed into a close approximation of a normal car's trunk, but Toyota believes that it can be far more useful than simply covering the loading area and has developed a new smart tonneau that will think for itself to protect your payload from the elements, improve aerodynamics, and even possibly aid in the charging of a Tundra Hybrid or electric Tacoma.

According to a new patent found by CarBuzz at the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Toyota is working on a new type of tonneau comprising multiple panels, which the patent claims may or may not be photovoltaic panels - or solar panels. But we'll get to the solar element in a little bit.

The most important aspect of the new tonneau is its smart protection functionality that responds to changing weather conditions.

This tonneau cover will fold away, either in full or in sections, to expose the load bed or a part thereof as needed and raise or lower individual sections to accommodate irregular load shapes. It will even be able to determine the best angle to position available embedded solar cells for optimum power generation and can pivot to either side along a longitudinal axis to achieve that same goal. A solar tonneau is not a new concept, but one that can optimize its angle in relation to the sun is certainly novel.

As is the case with many modern advancements, this concept of a tonneau cover relies on an array of sensors and external data inputs. And, to ensure that it can adapt to as wide a range of different conditions as possible, the cover will consist of separate sections with their own actuators.

The smart tonneau cover will know about the prevailing weather conditions both at the starting and finishing points of your journey, as well as anywhere along the way, thanks to a real-time link with a weather-tracking service. If the truck is parked with the tonneau retracted, live online data will combine with the integrated sensors to determine if snow or rain is imminent before closing itself, and if the truck bed is closed while the truck is parked in the sun, it will automatically elevate some sections to provide natural cooling ventilation for the protection of the bed's contents.

Apart from its ability to adapt to different ambient conditions and optimize solar power generation, this tonneau cover's greatest advantage could however be its ability to adjust its position to reduce aerodynamic drag on the move. Pickups usually have terrible highway aerodynamics because of the large height difference between the cabin's roof and the load bay, and conventional tonneau covers often exacerbate this problem.

This adaptive Toyota cover addresses this problem by being able to lift either its front edge or the entire assembly to the cabin's roof level, smoothing the airflow coming off the roof and minimizing the drag induced above the load bay. This setting may bring an added benefit of a more-effective angle for the solar array to catch more sun. Solar absorption can also be optimized by elevating and arranging the separate tonneau cover sections in a pattern like you'd find on a home's roof, with each panel turned towards the sun.

There's more that the system is capable of, though; proximity sensors and infrared sensors can be incorporated to detect possible predators or scavengers when parked out in the wilderness, and if the system detects such a threat, it will automatically close the cover to protect the load bay's contents.

Between the combination of aerodynamic efficiency and optimized solar energy harvesting, the system could be what Toyota needs to make an electric pickup more viable. With the new Toyota Tacoma expected to spawn an electric sibling, it might not be long before we see this tonneau in action.