Future Ford Vehicles Could Repossess Themselves
March 1st, 2023How about disabling vehicles owned by people who don’t have all of their vaccine boosters, or for any other reason?
Anyway, the basic capability to remotely disable vehicles has been around for a long time. From 2014: Why the repo man can remotely shut off your car engine:
In an effort to protect their assets and minimize delinquencies, dealers and lenders are increasingly outfitting cars with starter interrupt devices and GPS trackers. Given the euphemistic name of “payment assurance devices,” the technology allows the repo man to shut down a car if a subprime borrower is even one day late in making a payment.
Many starter interrupt devices require a borrower to enter a code provided by the dealer each month, after they’ve made an on-time payment. If the payments are missed, the lender can remotely shut off the car’s starter, and then use the device’s GPS to track down the vehicle and repossess.
While the technology was once used on high credit risk customers, it’s now standard on all electric vehicles that receive updates over the air (OTA), which is pretty much all of them. The same systems that provide OTA updates make it possible for the manufacturer to shut off the vehicle.
Via: ZeroHedge:
Ford Motor Company filed a US patent application that shows autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicles could potentially repossess themselves if their owners miss lease or loan payments.
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.
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While this patent application was first filed in Aug. 2021 and formally published on Feb. 23, it could be years before Ford implements such a technology.
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.”
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If the owner misses more payments, the repossession cycle will worsen. The car would emit an “incessant and unpleasant sound.” Worse, the vehicle might lock out the driver on certain days until payments are made.
And still, if the lockout doesn’t work and payments are missed, the vehicle could drive to a safe, nearby location for a repo team to seize it and avoid confrontation with the owner.
Or for people just California Fleein’
https://smoothiex12.blogspot.com/2023/02/this-is-gold.html