Trucks have been getting bigger and taller over the years, and that’s good and bad. Good, because more space. Bad, because without side steps they’re hard to get into. And what about the truck bed? Chevrolet has tackled that with a new patent received by General Motors. Introducing the “Tailgate Step.”

Now, there’s no point in hiding it. In 2009, Ford added a pull out step to their trucks tailgate. When users needed help getting in the bed, they could pull it out and use it. Chevrolet made an advertisement mocking this step as the “man step”, and well...it sort of backfired. If anything, it helped Ford and proved to be successful, because one-third of Ford’s sales included the man step that year.

Here we are eight years later and General Motors (GM) recently received a patent approval for their own take on the man step. Unlike the current man step, Chevy’s patented tailgate step is actually a section of the tailgate that folds down to form a step that looks more like a step you would see on a staircase. It’s an improvement on the previous man step, as it is not only wider but also comes with a backside to the step. This way, drivers don’t have to worry about stepping through the man step ladder-rung design and risk a twisted ankle. Imagine an upside-down “T” that connects to the tailgate, bottom-to-bottom.

With the 2019 Chevrolet Silverado and GMC Sierra on the horizon, we might see this option available sometime in 2018. Now, that’s a long ways away, but it has a patent, so it could become an exclusive truck feature offered by GM and Chevrolet.

Look for it in 2018/2019, and hope the patent doesn’t get lost in a file cabinet somewhere.