Ford filed for a patent on a new technological system that would allow the automaker to lock out owners from their cars for missed payments. The patent would also allow cars to be repossessed remotely – even enabling self-driving vehicles to drive themselves to a repo lot. Ford Global...
Think of the possibilities for criminal apprehension, recovering stolen vehicles, etc. Command detonation of pre-positioned scuttling charges will be next. Vote wrong in the next election and the Mom and kids go poof!
Found on the Road Locked. Why stop there FORL, make people pay you every year for the software to make the windows, lights and basically the truck run like jondeer.
The problem is that most people have a new car financed through the bank of their choice. Once that happens then Ford motor company is paid in full and the consumer then owes the financial institution the money. That would equate to Grand theft auto perpetrated by Ford motor company.
It would be easy for them to start a "recovery service" and have the finance company assign a recovery contract to them just like they do with repo agents. Just a repo and not grand theft.
What concerns me about it is what others have mentioned. I could care less about cars being repo'd using the technology, but once they can shut down your vehicle for non-payment they can shut it down for other reasons. Government says you are only allowed to drive within a 15 minute radius of home? Shut down when you exceed it. Putting the genie back in the bottle would be nearly impossible and they would absolutely come up with other uses for it.
I suppose you could lock me out of my emergency backup vehicle - a 74 Fj40 with an 8,000 pound winch, Chevy 350, 4 speed, lifted just enough.... However that would require me to be dead - with a lot of empty mags and shell casings around me.
If they want to find you they have tracking devices on their vehicles so what this is all about is that later on if they don't want you to go someplace they can just lock you out.
They are able to get away with this because nobody calls up Ford to complain and to tell them that we are not ever going to buy a Ford vehicle again.
Here is one example, starting around 2002 automatic transmissions were coming out of the factory without a dipstick to check the transmission fluid, so now you have to pay to take it to the dealer to put it up on the lift to get it checked and what if you have a slow leak starting, well you can't check it and you can't add any fluid so it burns up and you have a big repair bill. Everyone has to call up and complain and only then will they back off.
However, what's normal in business is if you think you might have a moneymaking idea, you go and get a patent, in case delaying causes someone else to beat you out.
You don't necessarilly totally investigate whether making the invention is something you probably should or will do, don't necessarily do a lot of soul searching.
So I think it's more about making sure they get the patent, just in case, and not really about what their plans are.
If they really make it, it's going to be a little vindication. But after I got annoyed by a million Ford guys- a trend I expect will continue- it's not going to make me feel much better if a few random ones get pushed around like this, or if it sort of proves to the world a bit more openly that Ford is bad.
I'm sure it will work as well as the rest of the crap soft ware and hard wire they sell. I hope I'm on the jury when they get sued for locking someone out of their cars because no car needs that system period.
Another member compared this to John Deere's draconian software controls. Deere continues to lose market share because of it, and that from a farm boy that grew up driving green equipment.
Yeah all this crap just makes me want to buy an old carbureted truck from the early 80's and say FU! I mean, I get why they would want to do it if they could, but man this opens a whole can of worms that I am not really comfortable with. Having grown up in the 80's and 90's all of this just seems so damn crazy. Like that guy in Canada that got locked out of his Tesla when the battery was going bad and they wanted to charge him 20 grand.
Bottom line is, once you own the title, you should be able to disable all of this crap. But you know you won't be able to...
I have worked at a Ford dealer and almost no one had the shot, we didn't really even wear masks. You talking about assembly line people maybe ? Which is still ****. But I started buying Ford when GM took the bailout. It's tough to vote with your dollar sometimes
They come with heated tailgates too. So your hands don't get cold pushing it home. /Ford joke.
What's to stop the person from torching it? Since it is no longer theirs and it left them stranded.
This is an older thread, you may not receive a response, and could be reviving an old thread. Please consider creating a new thread.
Related Threads
?
?
?
?
?
Survivalist Forum
11.6M posts
167.1K members
Since 2007
A forum community dedicated to survivalists and enthusiasts. Come join the discussion about collections, gear, DIY projects, hobbies, reviews, accessories, classifieds, and more!