Ford Submits A Patent That Would Allow Cars To Repossess Themselves

from the only-thing-with-autonomy-is-the-inanimate-object dept

The automotive trade is coming into into its own subprime crisis. Even earlier than the COVID pandemic led to produce chain points that vastly inflated car prices, lenders have been beginning to prolong mortgage durations to make issues simpler for underfunded purchasers, transferring on from the trade normal 3-5 yr loans to 84-month baselines that guarantee folks may buy automobiles… however for a value they’d be paying for an extended, very long time.

The underlying mechanics that led to the 2008 financial crisis at the moment are at play at automotive sellers. However sellers nonetheless have the higher hand, for probably the most half. You possibly can’t disable a home, however cheap tech allows dealers to disable cars when funds are overdue.

Starter interrupt gadgets are solely the start. As mortgage durations prolong to create “reasonably priced” funds (ones that won’t contact the principal for greater than three years) and funds proceed to be missed, regardless of this predatory lending tactic, automotive producers are transferring ahead to guard their backside strains.

Here’s the latest in dealer-on-driver financial violence, despatched to us by Techdirt reader BentFranklin by way of our Insider Chat. Making the most of built-in good programs, together with autonomous driving options, Ford will search to reclaim its property by any (digital) means mandatory.

The patent document was submitted to the USA Patent Workplace in August 2021 nevertheless it was formally revealed Feb. 23. It’s titled “Techniques and Strategies to Repossess a Car.” It describes a number of methods to make the lifetime of anyone who has missed a number of automotive funds more durable.

It explicitly says the system, which might be put in on any future automobile within the automaker’s lineup with a knowledge connection could be able to “[disabling] a performance of a number of parts of the automobile.” The whole lot from the engine to the air-con. For automobiles with autonomous or semi-autonomous driving functionality, the system may “transfer the automobile from a primary spot to a second spot that’s extra handy for a tow truck to tow the automobile… transfer the automobile from the premises of the proprietor to a location corresponding to, for instance, the premises of the repossession company,” or, if the lending establishment considers the “monetary viability of executing a repossession process” to be unjustifiable, the automobile may drive itself to the junkyard.

Kudos to The Drive, which not solely reported this information, however offered a hyperlink to the patent application [PDF], which incorporates useful illustrations like this one:

Yikes. “Police authority.” That doesn’t bode properly for purchasers who’ve fallen behind on their funds. They’re not truly thieves, not when the corporate has the choice to repo the automobile. However some irresponsible (or delayed) knowledge reporting may result in site visitors stops predicated on the (incorrect) supposition the automotive is stolen, when it’s truly nothing greater than delinquent.

The Drive notes no different automotive producer has tried to patent tech like this, placing Ford on the questionable vanguard of repo tech in the interim. Fortuitously, potential Ford purchasers gained’t simply discover their automobiles autonomously commandeered ought to they fall behind on their funds. Advance discover shall be given earlier than automobiles wander away to return themselves to their maker.

There could be a number of warnings from the automobile earlier than the system initiated a proper repossession. If these warnings have been ignored, the automotive may start to lose performance forward of a repo. The primary misplaced features could be minor inconveniences like “cruise management, automated window controls, automated seat controls, and a few parts of the infotainment system (radio, world positioning system (GPS), MP3 participant, and so forth.)” The subsequent degree is extra critical, and contains the lack of issues like “the air-con system, a distant key fob, and an automatic door lock/unlock system.” Likewise, an “incessant and ugly sound” could also be turned on “each time the proprietor is current within the automobile.”

Ought to all of those inconveniences be ignored, the system would escalate to lock folks out of their automobiles. It must be famous the patent exempts weekends from these escalating lockout ways, maybe recognizing it’s tough to compensate for funds when you’ll be able to’t contact the lien holder.

The semi-autonomous features could be activated if not one of the exceptions are met. At finest, it could transfer the automotive out of somebody’s driveway to a public road the place it may be extra simply towed. At worst, it could instruct the automotive to drive itself to the closest licensed repo lot if doable.

But when the scenario appears extra dire than that, the onboard pc will go for Mutually Assured Destruction. In sure circumstances, The Drive reviews, the system will emulate The Bard, instructing the automobile to “Get thee to a nunnery scrapyard.”

If it can price the financial institution extra to repo the automobile as in comparison with what it may promote it for, then “the repossession system pc could cooperate with the automobile pc to autonomously transfer the automobile from the premises of the proprietor to a junkyard.”

That’s the long run. Your automotive will run from you, in case your vendor or producer decides that’s the best way issues must go. By no means thoughts the truth that being with no automotive makes it that rather more tough to earn the wages wanted to pay it off. Ford desires to do your driving for you if it feels you’ll be able to not belief you. If which means you’re out of a automotive and nonetheless on the hook for hundreds, so be it.

Filed Underneath: autonomous vehicles, patents, repossession, self-driving

Firms: ford