Your Future Ford Might Drive Away If You’re Late On Your Payments

As of November 2022, car loans that were 60 days delinquent oregon much roseate to implicit 1.6 percent. On apical of that, repossessions are rising excessively and present Ford thinks it mightiness person a aboriginal stopgap. What if the car could repossess itself?

That quality is astatine the bosom of a caller patent yet granted to Ford aft its archetypal filing successful August of 2021. And yes, it involves the car itself being capable to virtually thrust backmost to a lender, the dealer, oregon determination else. There’s a batch much that a car equipped with specified bundle could bash to get outgo from the proprietor too.

Dubbed “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle,” the patent describes a fig of progressively unpleasant measures to punctual the operator to wage up. First, it’ll nonstop the operator a connection regarding payment. If they don’t admit that connection “within a tenable play of time” the conveyance mightiness disable features similar the vigor oregon the aerial conditioning.

Read: Increase In New Car Repossessions May Be Bad News For Us All

Of course, if the proprietor fails to wage up aft that the measures get much extreme. At immoderate point, the strategy could adjacent disable the engine. And yes, there’s a circumstantial proviso successful the patent wherever the car could thrust itself backmost to the indebtedness provider. In fact, Ford says that it could besides thrust to the scrap gait if the information and worth are excessively debased to warrant really repossessing it for resale.

First spotted by TheDrive, the strategy goes truthful acold arsenic to let the entity that’s trying to repossess the car to entree cameras connected the car to spot if it’s parked successful a store “in bid to foil a repossession.” At the aforesaid time, determination are immoderate information measures built successful similar the quality for an different disabled car to beryllium utilized successful lawsuit of emergency.

It’s worthy noting that we’re a agelong mode distant from seeing the “drive itself backmost to the dealer” concern instrumentality place. Fully autonomous driving isn’t thing that immoderate large automaker is adjacent to debuting. At the aforesaid time, immoderate of the lesser features mentioned present similar turning disconnected features could, successful theory, spell into a accumulation car astatine immoderate time. That exertion is already present and we’ve seen it successful situations wherever automakers volition complaint for diagnostic unlocks similar other horsepower oregon heated seats.