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Booga1 [soylentnews.org] writes:

Interesting Engineering [interestingengineering.com] reports, Ford's latest patent enables vehicles to repossess themselves and drive away [interestingengineering.com].

Ford’s new patent enables banks to confiscate future Ford vehicles if the owner repeatedly skips payments, thanks to new technologies. The American automaker allegedly submitted a patent for "System & Methods to Repossess a Vehicle" in media reports.

According to previously released patent filings [uspto.gov], the new system, which can disable one or more vehicle functions, could be installed in any Ford vehicle. It claims that everything on the car, including the air conditioning and engine, can be turned off. It continued by stating that with the new system in place, autonomous [interestingengineering.com] or semi-autonomous vehicles might be transferred from their initial location to a secondary location, making it easier for them to be towed.

Either to the agency or to the scrap yard
According to reports, the vehicle may be ordered to drive either to the agency handling the repossession or directly to the scrap yard, depending on the financial sustainability of the process.

Although the specifics are unknown, the sources indicate that a "repossession computer" might be installed in all upcoming cars to enable the system to work properly. Furthermore, it specifies that no additional hardware is required for the new technology to function. The article also states that the system will issue several warnings before starting a repossession.

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