Ford Wants to Introduce the World’s First Pickup Truck Emoji

Ford is currently working on the world’s smallest pickup truck and, if all goes according to plan, we could see it everywhere pretty soon.

No, it’s not a more compact version of the Ranger, not even a die-cast model or a Hot Wheels toy. Today, July 17, is World Emoji Day and the automaker is marking the occasion by revealing the first-ever pickup truck emoji.

They’re serious about it, too. Last year Ford submitted a proposal to the Unicode Consortium—the organization that reviews and approves proposals for new emoji—to add a truck to emoji keyboards everywhere. Now, the company’s pickup truck emoji has been short-listed as a candidate for inclusion in the next emoji update planned for early 2020.

“When customers started demanding a truck emoji, we knew we had to help make it happen,” said Joe Hinrichs, Ford’s president, automotive. “Given the popularity of Ford trucks globally, there’s no one better than Ford to help bring an all-new pickup truck emoji to hard-working texters around the globe.”

A small team at Ford spent months digging through message boards, texting influencers and watching social media feeds to better understand users’ needs and design the perfect truck emoji.

In fact, you can watch this funny video that shows how the emoji went through all the usual vehicle development steps and testing procedures: