TheGuardian.com - Behind on your car payments? Your car could soon be driving itself to the pound. Ford Motor Company has applied for a patent that would enable a computer to disable a vehicle or component of a vehicle over delinquent car payments and could lead to cars self-driving themselves to repossession lots. The patent application published last month claims to seek a solution to car owners being unwilling to have their vehicles repossessed by remotely disabling the vehicle or a component of the vehicle if a delinquency notice isn’t acknowledged over a certain period of time.
“When an acknowledgement is not received within a reasonable period of time, the first computer may disable a functionality (radio, air-conditioner, etc) or may place the vehicle in a lockout condition,” states the patent application published in February as part of a public review of the patent process.
They haven't ironed out all of the kinks in the software...
The patent describes a repossession system computer configured to communicate with the vehicle computer and/or smartphone of the driver and lists various optional components of the vehicle it could be connected to, such as cruise control, automated window controls, seat controls, radio and GPS, door locking system, and air conditioning.
"Make that truck payment or your F-150 will drive away on it's own."
ReplyDeleteCountry Music Hall of Fame song, right there.
If you could work in falling in love (while he's chugging SoCo) with his dog and his girlfriend dying, yeah...
DeletePut David Allen Coe on it, be done next week.
DeleteFor anyone that can come up with "Well, I was drunk the day my mama got out of prison" it oughta be easy.