71–80 of 568 posts
I hope they defend it with a vengeance so nobody can copy it
What needs to happen is better consumer protection to prevent americans buying cars on finance that they are never going to be able to afford.
I just had an idea: how about a car that makes you stop by the side of the road to watch 2 minutes of ads before being able to continue. And for a certain amount you can unlock adless travel.
The real story here is that Ford incentivizes employees to write patents (though I doubt very much this makes them particularly unique). Beyond that, the technology required to support this functionality is so far ahead of what's available today (or likely to be available anytime soon) that it's not worth a serious debate.
I used to work for an automotive OEM. I can confirm this. We got regular (yearly) reminders to submit patient ideas for concepts we’d come up with. There was a bonus incentive once the patent was awarded (maybe just submitted) It was something on the order of $500-1000 IIRC. Our lawyers were pragmatic about it. They were very clear that the concept should be novel and plausible, and were willing to offer guidance and…
The inventor would submit ideas to the patent staff, if selected, spend an hour or so describing it to staff who write the patent application; the inventor reviews and clarifies, etc a couple rounds, and then it's submitted.
What if it's behind a locked gate?
Well if this is how the new cars are gonna be, I guess I'll just go ahead and teach myself to be a Car Guy so that the one I have now will run forever. It's not that I'm afraid of missing a payment. At this point I would probably buy the car outright. But after the robo-signing debacle with BoA repossesssing houses that they were never party to, the mere capability renders the machine fundamentally untrustworthy.
Kind of surprised it hasn’t happened yet honestly.
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The biggest problem with an ignition interlock device today is that they're extremely unreliable. As implemented they are also very intrusive. Granted, they are currently implemented only as part of a punitive measure, so that behavior is partly intentional, but it would be unacceptable for universal adoption. Probably be better to just make cars do realtime verification of license status before letting someone drive…
>The biggest problem with an ignition interlock device today is that they're extremely unreliable. As implemented they are also very intrusive Money spent making the device not suck reduces profit. Nobody will care when you abuse your customers because your customers are convicted criminals. Pretty much every company selling stuff that people need to use to not violate the terms of their sentence is like this.
That may be true. But it's also possible that measuring blood alcohol with breath tests is never going to work consistently for all people. Breathalyzers are well known for widely variable results between people who have identical BAC.
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"but I won't let that bother me like it does other folk. I'll stand out on the roadside, thumb up in the air, and wait for some good passer buy to show me that they care"
Elon says I'm lazy. I think he's a joke. Folks told me to learn to code. That's great, but now I'm broke.
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I am pretty sure that no one at the patent office cares if your invention works or not.
Not quite true. They will stop you from patenting a perpetual motion machine (typically by saying that you have not provided enough detail for someone to replicate your work).
I hope they defend it with a vengeance so nobody can copy it
Maybe I'm naive, but I don't see this as particularly evil. It's just a more efficient of what already happens in terms of care repossession. What needs to happen is better consumer protection to prevent americans buying cars on finance that they are never going to be able to afford.
And, when someone does not pay as agreed to a significant degree, the more efficient that a repossession can happen, the better a deal can be offered to borrowers who do pay as agreed.