Ford patents self sufficient car repossession

Ford is making an attempt to patent era that might permit automobiles to repossess themselves.

As first noticed through The Force, a Ford patent utility titled “Methods and Find out how to Repossess a Car” used to be printed through america Patent and Trademark Workplace (USPTO) Feb. 23, even though it used to be submitted to the company Aug. 20, 2021.

The file describes the use of cars’ integrated knowledge connections to remotely disable “a capability of a number of parts of the car,” which might function warnings if the landlord has ignored automotive bills.

Ford vehicle repossession system patent image

Ford car repossession gadget patent symbol

 

In step with the file, deactivations would get started with options like “cruise keep watch over, computerized window controls, computerized seat controls, and a few parts of the infotainment gadget (radio International Positioning Device (GPS), MP3 participant, and so forth.),” escalating to purposes like “the air con gadget, a faraway key fob, and an automatic door lock/unencumber gadget.” If that isn’t frustrating sufficient, an “incessant and ugly sound” may play “each time the landlord is provide within the car.”

If the financial institution nonetheless hasn’t won cost after that, the car may lock the landlord out, even though the file claims use of the car could be re-enabled for emergency eventualities, describing use of onboard sensors to pass judgement on if the emergency is authentic.

Sensors may also be used to decide if the car is in a storage, and if it isn’t, the patent utility describes the use of integrated autonomous-driving capacity to help repossession, both through positioning the car to be extra simply picked up through a tow truck, or riding it away. 

 

Ford vehicle repossession system patent image

Ford car repossession gadget patent symbol

“In another instances, the car can also be an self sufficient car and the repossession gadget laptop would possibly cooperate with the car laptop to autonomously transfer the car from the premises of the landlord to a location, corresponding to, for instance, the premises of the repossession company, the premises of the lending establishment, an impound pound, or another pre-designated location.”

A “pre-designated location” may additionally come with the scrapyard. The lending establishment may analyze the marketplace price of the car and, if it is decided to be underneath a threshold of economic viability for repossession, “the repossession gadget laptop would possibly cooperate with the car laptop to autonomously transfer the car from the premises of the landlord to a junkyard.”

Any such gadget would depend on autonomous-driving era that Ford has throttled again on lately. The automaker, at the side of Volkswagen, ended additional funding in startup Argo AI closing 12 months, forcing it to close down.

A patent utility additionally does not essentially sign manufacturing intent. Ford particularly ceaselessly peppers the USPTO with patent packages, albeit now not as dystopian-sounding as this one.

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