New Ford Patent: remotely "recoverable" vehicles with delinquent loans
CTOnews.com, March 7 (Xinhua)-- Ford recently filed a patent with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a "system and method to retrieve a vehicle," which describes how to recover a vehicle from a delinquent borrower through smart car capabilities.
According to the content of the patent, financial institutions or recovery institutions can automatically drive the vehicle to places such as "recovery institution" or "loan institution" through the Internet without the participation of the owner.
The patented system can also gradually disable smart car functions. Lenders can control some of the functions of the vehicle through the system, such as turning off adaptive cruising, seat adjustment, infotainment and so on. In the next step, the system will issue its own warning sound to remind the owner to repay the loan, but the vehicle can still drive normally. If the owner is still in arrears with the payment, the lender can further turn off the air conditioner or even disable the engine, brake, accelerator, steering wheel, etc. At this time, the car door will be automatically locked, and the vehicle will automatically drive to the recovery institution, loan institution and other places. If the lender believes that the value of the car is too low, the patented system can also send the vehicle directly to the dump for scrapping.
Regarding this patent, Ford spokesman Weiss Sherwood said: "it is a normal business process for us to submit patents for new inventions and it does not necessarily mean that we have new business or product plans." He said that because the patent involves a number of institutions and systems, it is difficult to apply to mass production cars.
CTOnews.com noted that Ford applied for the patent against the backdrop of rising delinquency rates on car loans in the United States. According to the latest data from Cox Automotiv, the largest online and offline car trading platform in the United States, the number of car loans more than 60 days overdue in January 2023 increased by 2% from December last year, 20.4% from the same period last year, to the highest level in 17 years.
