DETROIT–Credit unions are facing a number of challenges around repossessing automobiles, but a patent filed by one major automaker offers a solution—a vehicle that repossess itself.
According to a document recently published on the United States Patent and Trademark Office website, Ford said it is considering a system that would allow a car to, on its own, to drive away from the vehicle owner/borrower if the borrowers stops making their monthly auto payments. The patent applies to self-driving vehicles.
As CNN reported, the patent hasn’t been approved yet and Ford insists it’s just a thought.
“We don’t have any plans to deploy this,” Ford said in a statement to CNN, pointing out that the company was granted — not just applied for, but actually granted — 1,342 patents last year. That’s an average of 3.7 patents per day.
‘Litany of Annoyances’
Under Ford’s14-page patent application, before getting to the point where the car would simply drive itself away, delinquent payers would be “subject to a litany of annoyances. First, badgering messages on owners’ smartphones and even on the screens inside the car. These messages would demand at least an acknowledgment or, better yet, on-the-spot payment.
“If the owner persists in ignoring these messages, the vehicle would, in the words of Ford’s patent application, ‘initiate execution of a multi-step repossession procedure’,” CNN reported.
Turning of AC is Job One
Step one involves making the owner pay in other ways.
“Features like the air conditioning, cruise control, or the radio might stop working. (Some of that is already possible in many vehicles),” the report continued. “If that doesn’t work, the vehicle could become proactively irritating. The stereo might be programmed to ‘emit an incessant and unpleasant sound every time the owner is present in the vehicle,’ according to the patent.
“There would be just one way to turn off the noise, which would of course involve “….making contact with the lending institution to address the payment delinquency. Failing that, the car would make itself unusable by, for starters, refusing to unlock its doors. This is where things get really complicated.”
Some Exceptions
The patent also notes a borrower might need to drive to work in order to earn the money to pay back the loan, so the car could be restricted to allow itself only to be taken to work and, maybe, to buy groceries or drop the kids off at school.
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