In March of last year, a stunning Ford patent application for a system that would let the company’s cars drive themselves came to light. In the event that you failed to make payments on a Ford that could drive itself or partially drive itself, the car would rise from its parking spot and call a tow truck. It looks like Ford has given up on its plans for self-repair technology since the patent is now marked as “abandoned.” It was dropped on October 20, 2023, for “Failure to Respond to an Office Action” by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). This was Ford’s self-repo patent application. The company just let it run out of time. Given that many people thought the technology was too dystopian, Ford may have known how people would respond when the app was first released. The goal was to make the repossession process easier for both Ford and lienholders. This should be possible on any Ford with an infotainment system that can get changes wirelessly. If the car can drive itself, Ford might let it move from where it was originally parked (in the owner’s garage, for example) to a place that is easier for a tow truck to get to, like the side of the road. It could drive itself to a scrap yard if it had to. The software makes it easy to turn off a car so that its owner can’t drive it. This keeps the car from moving while the tow truck comes. On top of that, Ford probably disliked the idea of repossessing cars in the first place. People who make cars sometimes file patents on ideas for technologies that they don’t plan to use or develop, at least not right now. That way, they can keep their ideas while they decide whether to act on them right away or wait until they get a better answer from the public. We should all agree that this technology should only come out for a while, no matter what the reason is.
