Ford Tries to Patent a Dystopian Future Where Self-Driving Cars Repo Themselves

Car companies often speak about independent vehicles as an avenue towards increased freedom — enabling more people to get at roadway and apply number one wood back their time and attention . But at least one machine giant is see alternate ( and darker ) use of still - problematic ego - drive technology .

Ford has filed a letters patent for theoretic tech that would , among other things , appropriate its vehicles to repossess themselves if a number one wood falls behind on car payments . In Ford ’s version of the hereafter , delinquent customer ’ gondola could drive themselves back to a franchise ( or to an impound lot or even a scrap yard ) if the owner fails to pay up in time . regrettably , this is not joke .

The U.S. Patent Office print the company’sapplicationlast Thursday , February — about 1.5 days after Ford first file it . The patent , title “ Systems and Methods to Repossess a fomite , ” has n’t been formally grant ( yet ) , but is even so an unsettling peek into an alternate universe where individual ship’s company have even more of a say over our day - to - mean solar day biography .

Imagine watching your Ford pickup truck speeding off to deliver itself to a junkyard because you missed one too many car payments. A sampling of the schematics Ford included in its patent application are overlaid above.

In the auto manufacturer ’s dystopian , proposed and patented version of world , a span skitter car payments would trigger a cycle of in - car upshot — or a “ multi - step repossession procedure , ” as it ’s called in the written document . First , an owner behind on their loan would get a notice of delinquency , institutionalise via their infotainment scheme CRT screen . If the gadget driver fails to respond to that notice , there would be a second one . Then , your Ford personal vehicle would slowly transmute into a version of hell .

The company proposes varied other punishments for delinquent car owners — for instance , a vehicle that could invalid its own air conditioning , automated key , GPS , or medicine organization . Another estimate Ford floats in the patent filing is “ activating an audio component in the fomite … to let loose an ceaseless and unpleasant audio every time the owner is present in the vehicle . ” Which seems fantastically insecure !

If the horrible noise and/or minimized functionality and comfort does n’t entice a car possessor to cough up the money , the repo appendage would then progress to locking a equipment driver out of their fomite . Ford notes that this “ lockout condition ” could be variably impose — potentially leave people to get at their vehicles in a aesculapian pinch ( via a complicated system of user monitoring ) or still get back and forth to work by only restricting travel outdoors of sure zones or times . Why , you might ask ? Because Ford care — about getting its money . “ let the use of the vehicle during weekdays ward off adversely touch a livelihood of the proprietor of the vehicle and handicap the possessor ’s ability to make payment , ” the ship’s company publish .

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And still , if the lockout does n’t do work , Ford has file to letters patent tech that would allow its vehicle to self - repo . The company proposes version of this idea that could work with both semi - self-reliant and to the full autonomous cars . In the former , the vehicle would move a short space to be more easily towed away by a repo ship’s company . In the latter , the car would aim itself all the way back to the franchise it was purchase from , or to a nearby impound batch or fighting yard — calculate on the vehicles ’ value . The company also includes safeguards against owner defence ( i.e. shut up the vehicle in a closed garage ) that would automatically apprise the law .

So , just to recap , in a possible future reality , a Ford motorcar could put away you out , cut off your AC , farm dreaded sounds , take itself to get junked for parts if you miss enough defrayal , and call the fuzz on you .

This is not the only absurd letters patent Ford has filed for its vehicles . In a 2018 filing , the company outline a proposal for anautonomous police force car that uses AIto more efficaciously hide from and catch “ violator of dealings laws . ” The car maker has also patenteda bonkers movie screen windshieldin preparation for a far - off hereafter where masses no longer necessitate to determine the road in front of them . Also , the caller has filed patents tobring billboard inside your carand buildvehicles with detachable motorcycle .

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To be just : Ford , and many company , do this sort of thing a lot . It does n’t necessarily mean the auto maker actually be after to put any of this technical school into play . However , the self - repo - ing car proposal sounds unambiguously feeble . And the party has clearly put a lot of fourth dimension , thought , and item into the 14 - page software that includes schematic and explanations of how this self - repossessing fomite ’s net connectivity would mould — for maximum effectiveness .

“ We submit patents on new inventions as a normal course of business enterprise but they are n’t necessarily an indication of new business or product programme , ” enunciate Ford spokesperson , Wes Sherwood , to Gizmodo via email . The caller did not respond to questions about if any prospect of this newly patented applied science are in ontogenesis .

Notably , much of the organisation offer in Ford ’s recent patent coating would be dependent upon vehicles much more autonomous than what the company currently has . Although Ford antecedently state it was purpose to ramp up thebiggest self - drive auto fleet in the humans , the company declare it wasabandoning its goalof amply ego - drive cars in October 2022 .

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