Ford's patent also describes remotely disabling functions such as the A/C and locking delinquent owners out of their vehicles.
back in 2021, but it wasn't formally published until last Thursday—a discovery originally made by The Drive.As we already mentioned, the most startling details described in the filing regard autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles that can repossess themselves. For vehicles equipped with the latter, they might simply move themselves a short distance to a location where they can be more easily towed.
Some of Ford's other repo-related repercussions don't go quite as far as making people watch their unmanneddrive directly to the crusher at Uncle Tony's Salvage. They also act as early warnings and workarounds for folks who own vehicles without autonomous technology or in cases where a vehicle is parked in a garage or otherwise unable to drive itself away or be accessed by a tow truck.
They can be as simple, albeit infuriating, as disabling certain vehicle functions. At first, convenience features such as the the air-conditioning, cruise control, power seats, power windows, or the the radio might be deactivated. Another method is described as playing irritating and incessant sounds through the stereo system.
For now, all Ford's patent filing confirms is that the company is at least kicking around the idea of self-repossessing vehicles. While it sounds plausible the more autonomous driving tech becomes better integrated and more common, we'd sooner expect to see vehicles be remotely repossessed by having features disabled or through immobilization. Then again, it's hard to predict the future.
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