Ford’s self-repossessing automotive patent is a nightmare of the connected-car future

The electrical and digital transformation of the automotive trade comes with a number of guarantees for a greater tomorrow. Electrical automobiles may dramatically scale back carbon emissions within the transportation sector; related vehicles will give us entry to providers and options we don’t presently take pleasure in; over-the-air software program updates may remove excessive restore prices; and automatic automobiles might make driving considerably safer.

But it surely’s value remembering that, on the finish of the day, automotive firms are simply out to make a buck, not make the world a greater place.

This week, it was revealed that Ford utilized for a patent on a system that might use related automotive expertise to raised help in automobile repossession. Information of the patent’s publication was first reported by The Drive this week (which, within the curiosity of full disclosure, is a publication the place I beforehand served as editorial director), and it describes quite a lot of procedures round repo-ing vehicles when funds are delinquent. 

Ford utilized for a patent on a system that might use related automotive expertise to raised help in automobile repossession

These embrace sending messages to the proprietor’s smartphone or the automobile itself, locking drivers out fully, disabling capabilities like air-con, geofencing drivers to solely function inside a sure time or set space to allow them to nonetheless get to work, and in a single particularly harrowing instance, enabling an autonomous automotive to only drive itself to an impound lot — or a junkyard if the automotive’s market worth is set to be beneath a sure threshold. 

Somebody at Ford put a number of thought into all of this. 

The patent doc describes dozens of the way to remotely and electronically revolutionize all the repossession course of, together with liaising immediately with lending establishments and police. 

Presently, that course of is much more low-tech, however it’s nonetheless infamously predatory and missing in oversight. In states like California and New York, repossession can happen if an proprietor is even a number of weeks behind on funds, and collectors aren’t even required to inform drivers earlier than it occurs. 

An proprietor’s rights on this scenario rely on what state they reside in and what’s of their mortgage settlement. 

Whether or not automotive homeowners may even reinstate their loans by getting the stability present depends upon what’s of their mortgage settlement, and their proper to take action varies from state to state. If they can’t get their automotive again, it may very well be swiftly offered at public sale. 

The patent doc describes dozens of the way to remotely and electronically revolutionize all the repossession course of, together with liaising immediately with lending establishments and police

Lately, there’s been an increase in the usage of digital transponders on vehicles financed by way of subprime loans. These units put lower-income or bad-credit patrons liable to having their automobiles remotely disabled in the event that they’re behind on funds. 

Ford’s patent, nonetheless, takes this concept to a galaxy-brain degree, concocting a number of eventualities the place related automobile knowledge and autonomy can be utilized to instantly retrieve automobiles if homeowners slip up.

The knee-jerk response to all of that is “Make your automotive funds on time.” And that’s definitely true, however no deep introspection is required to appreciate individuals fall behind on funds and different payments the entire time and for all kinds of causes. These embrace sudden job loss, sudden medical prices, private emergencies, or shedding a accomplice or member of the family who was contributing to funds. No person desires to get their automotive repossessed, in any case. 

Ford self-repossessing automotive patent by ahawkins8223 on Scribd

However this Ford patent represents a sort of nightmare state of affairs for the connected-car future, one the place the auto — lengthy an emblem of private freedom and nonetheless marketed as such — comes with much more exterior software-driven management over the place we go, what we do, and the way we do it. Simply as automakers need you to subscribe to options you as soon as bought upfront, like heated seats, or search restrictions on whether or not you may have the correct to restore your automobile or not, the brand new period of vehicles will undoubtedly include an ideal deal extra strings connected. 

The repossession patent is particularly galling when you think about the state of the automotive market lately. 

Vehicles are costlier than ever, and individuals are having a tougher time paying for them than ever, a pattern that was taking place even earlier than the pandemic put a provide chain crunch in the marketplace. By the tip of final 12 months, the common new automotive in America value a record-high $49,507, in accordance with Kelley Blue E-book. This new crop of EVs — which might undoubtedly be the primary to function such applied sciences — are much more costly at round $61,448 per automobile. 

No deep introspection is required to appreciate individuals fall behind on funds and different payments the entire time and for all kinds of causes

Automakers have spent years pushing patrons into costlier vehicles, SUVs, and crossovers and eliminating smaller vehicles from their lineups with a purpose to make the most of these automobiles’ increased revenue margins. The consequence has been longer mortgage phrases, an increase in adverse fairness “rolled over” from previous automotive loans, and extra whole automotive debt than ever. Simply this week, Fortune reported America is now seeing its highest “extreme delinquency” charge since 2006 as excessive rates of interest and skyrocketing costs put a squeeze on individuals’s budgets. Used automotive costs are much more out of whack. 

Lastly, automotive firms might have taken the worst classes from the automotive shortages of the pandemic. The consequence has been circumstances like Basic Motors hitting pause on the manufacturing of its hottest vehicles to “preserve optimum stock ranges,” resulting in fears that provide may very well be stored artificially low with a purpose to preserve sky-high costs. 

In different phrases, automakers and their sellers have spent years ramping up automotive costs or benefiting from market circumstances. Now they’re arising with high-tech methods to hit homeowners again if they’ll’t pay up. 

Naturally, this isn’t the sort of technology-related headline Ford desires. The automaker demurred in a press release revealed in varied retailers, saying it has no plan to deploy this method. “We submit patents on new innovations as a standard course of enterprise, however they aren’t essentially a sign of recent enterprise or product plans,” Ford mentioned in a press release. 

Even if you happen to take Ford at face worth there, this type of factor completely might be performed. In a world the place automakers are actively combating your capacity to repair your individual automotive, there’s no cause to consider they’ve shoppers’ greatest pursuits in thoughts the entire time. And whereas related automotive expertise continues to be in its relative infancy, it’s only a matter of time earlier than these vehicles enter the used market or the tech spreads to cheaper automobiles. 

So once we take a look at how automotive expertise is advancing within the years to come back, it’s value drivers in all places asking this: Who’s all of this for, anyway? And is that this subsequent era of vehicles going to save lots of the planet and its individuals, or is it simply going to save lots of the auto trade?