INTELLIGENT HITCH APPARATUS FOR VEHICLES

A hitch apparatus for a vehicle includes a microcontroller unit, a drawbar, and a coupling apparatus secured within the drawbar via a pin. The pin and/or the drawbar includes one or more force sensors, each configured to measure a force vector on the pin and/or drawbar during towing of a trailer or other vehicle attached to the coupling apparatus. Each force sensor is electrically connected to the microcontroller unit, and the microcontroller unit is configured to receive force measurement data from each force sensor and process the data for transfer to a vehicle control system via a controller area network bus associated with the vehicle. The microcontroller unit may determine if one or more threshold forces have been exceeded and trigger one or more corrective actions by the vehicle control system in response to determining that a threshold force has been exceeded.