Mahaz News
—
Ford has some attention-grabbing concepts on what self-driving vehicles may quickly have the ability to do. Besides liberating us from the tedium of commuting, the corporate envisions vehicles that would repossess themselves.
According to a doc just lately revealed on the United States Patent and Trademark Office web site, Ford mentioned it’s contemplating a system that will permit a automobile to, by itself, depart you for those who cease making your month-to-month auto funds.
Don’t fear, although. The patent hasn’t been authorized but. And Ford insists it’s only a thought.
“We don’t have any plans to deploy this,” Ford mentioned in an announcement, mentioning that the corporate was granted — not simply utilized for, however truly granted — 1,342 patents final yr. That’s a mean of three.7 patents per day.
Companies apply for patents to guard concepts from being utilized by others, whether or not or not they really use the mental property themselves, defined patent lawyer Michael Messinger, a companion within the Washington, DC, workplace of the agency Vorys. These processes can take a very long time, mentioned Messinger, with plenty of back-and-forth.
But possibly some components of Ford’s 14-page software, stuffed with concepts for getting folks to pay up, could also be extra patentable than others.
Before attending to the purpose the place the automobile would merely drive itself away, delinquent payers could be topic to a litany of annoyances. First, badgering messages on house owners’ smartphones and even on the screens contained in the automobile. These messages would demand at the least an acknowledgment or, higher but, on-the-spot cost.
If the proprietor persists in ignoring these messages, the automobile would, within the phrases of Ford’s patent software, “initiate execution of a multi-step repossession procedure.”
Step one entails making the proprietor pay in different methods. Features just like the air con, cruise management, or the radio may cease working. (Some of that’s already attainable in lots of automobiles.)
If that doesn’t work, the automobile may grow to be proactively irritating. The stereo could be programmed to “emit an incessant and unpleasant sound every time the owner is present in the vehicle,” in accordance with the patent.
There could be only one technique to flip off the noise, which might after all contain “….making contact with the lending institution to address the payment delinquency.”
Failing that, the automobile would make itself unusable by, for starters, refusing to unlock its doorways. This is the place issues get actually difficult.
A borrower may must drive to work to be able to earn the cash to pay again the mortgage. The automobile might be restricted to permit itself solely to be taken to work and, possibly, to purchase groceries or drop the youngsters off at college. That’s it. And all of the whereas, the driving force will probably be unable to take heed to the stereo, may not have air con and might be subjected to that irritating, unstoppable noise.
Then there’s the difficulty of what to do if there’s a medical emergency. In a state of affairs like this, in accordance with Ford’s software, the automobile might be enabled to drive itself to the closest emergency room and even to coordinate with emergency medical personnel to rendezvous at a location. The automobile would then return to locking out its proprietor.
Only in essentially the most excessive non-payment situation would the automobile obtain an over-the-air command to give up its proprietor. In that case, if the automobile isn’t able to totally self-driving in visitors, it would simply transfer itself to a spot the place it might be simple for a tow truck to retrieve it, like the sting of a avenue.
Sometimes, although, debtors who’re behind on funds will take the step of locking their automobile in a storage or inserting it someplace that makes it not possible to easily drive itself away. In the tip, a very good old school human being taking again the automobile will be the solely reply.
So, whereas Ford’s concept for a self-repossessing automobile may by no means be granted an precise patent, a number of the concepts included within the patent — a automobile that makes horrible noises for those who don’t pay, as an illustration, or that permits you to drive to just one or two locations — these simply could be patentable, mentioned Messinger.
It might not have been your concept of the “car of the future” however, for those who don’t pay up, it simply could be.
Source web site: www.cnn.com
