Ford Steers Toward Future Where Self-Driving Cars Might Repossess Themselves

In an era when self-driving cars are quickly becoming reality, and driverless parking services and subscription-based features abound, why not program those same autonomous cars to drive to a scrapyard if an owner skips out on payments?

That’s what Ford has envisioned for the future if its latest filings are any indication, as the company has recently submitted a patent on ‘Systems & Methods to Repossess a Vehicle’ with the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO).

According to the documents, it appears this system would be installed in any vehicle, and could automatically overwrite and disable certain settings so that the driver can no longer access the car.

In fact, even the air-conditioning and engine can be switched off, with the autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle driving itself to a secondary location to be towed away by the firm.

At the moment, not much else has been revealed about the technology that would enable Ford to control the cars remotely, but a “repossession computer” could feature in all forthcoming cars to power the system, though no hardware is required.

Thankfully, it doesn’t seem as if the car will entirely shut down all at once, which would prove to be dangerous should a driver still be on the road. Rather, the automaker will issue several warnings that will gradually disable features.

At the start, minor controls may be turned off, and if payments still aren’t made, the car will then move on to shutting down more critical functions such as the key fob or disallowing the doors from being locked and unlocked.

No one knows for sure if this auto-repossession system will ever see the light of day, but with how self-driving technology continues to evolve, it won’t be surprising if you see cars zooming off to the showroom all on their own.

[via Interesting Engineering and Car and Driver, images via various sources]