Ford has applied for a patent for a “repossession system computer” (RPC) that can turn your car into a self-driving vehicle if you fall behind on payments. It makes your life increasingly miserable until you pay up. Eventually, it drives to a repo lot or junks itself. If they made a mistake, oh, well.
Zero Hedge:
“The idea of self-driving cars repossessing themselves might sound dystopian, but it is not surprising that automakers are considering this technology to ensure payment. Repossession is a common practice, and as we’ve described recently, cracks are beginning to form in the subprime auto loan market.”
The patent, titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” explains how a future lineup of Ford vehicles would be capable of disabling “a functionality of one or more components of the vehicle.”
The patent application was published on February 23rd of this year.
If a driver misses a car payment, the vehicle will disable air-conditioning, radio, GPS, and cruise control to irritate the driver.
Can you imagine what a forgotten payment could do to cause even more tension in this very tense world we live in?
The missed payment cycle keeps getting worse as time goes on. They even have an “incessant and unpleasant sound” that will torture drivers. Eventually, the vehicle will lock out the driver on certain days.
I won’t buy a GM car after what they did to investors during the Obama bailout. Now Ford is off my list. I’ve never missed a car payment, but I don’t want a car that could lock me out.
Police could use it to force you to the side of the road. Take your kill switches to Hades, Ford. Just wait until you see the road rage accidents you cause.
Eventually, the vehicle drives to a safe, nearby location for the repo team to seize it, or worse.
It can direct your car to a waiting tow truck, a dealership, or even a scrapyard if it deems it worthless.
Read the rest of the story on this link to an article by Leo Hohmann.
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IMO no one in the comments feels that someone should keep a car they aren’t paying for, it is wrong and is stealing, however, to give a valid and pertinent example which continues to plague the world today, most everyone does not support or believe piracy is a good thing either, a few decades ago Sony decided to fight “piracy”… Read more »
The used car market will become bigger than ever…not only people who not only sell used cars, people who fix used cars, but the people who make parts for older cars will be making 10 times or a 100 times more money because they will sell 10 or 100 times more parts because most people will hang on their older… Read more »
Like so many things, while the idea is meant to be helpful it will end up being abused. I’ve had an idiot light telling me I have low tire pressure for the past few years. I don’t have low tire pressure, but it’s lit every day. Imagine hackers figuring out how to signal every Ford in the city to suddenly… Read more »
It’s lit “everyday” because one of your tire sensors is bad. FIX IT and it will GO AWAY !!
This should be illegal on so many levels. It’s bad enough that modern cars have so much technology that they always seem to have something broke. And then there is the Chevy Bolt which apparently has a reputation of catching fire in your garage and burning your house down. The Best Car I ever drove was my mother’s 1963 Rambler… Read more »
If you buy a car and then stop making payments on it, you have no right to keep that car. My friend started out as a repo man for a certain car company. It was a dangerous job and that was back in the 70’s. Threatened, guns pulled on him. Now look at how people behave. A lot worse. I… Read more »
Riiiight… just “disable” the car so the person has no brakes or steering. GREAT IDEA…(sarc)
M. Dowling has shown us a dystopian nightmare. However she has only scratched the surface. Imagine is using that car system was in the hands of her political enemies…. Effectively such a system will mean the end of anyone every really owning anything though they pay good money to purchase the product. Like gene meddling and gain of function research… Read more »