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Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

thedrive.com

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Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#81

Post by toast0 »

lasermike026 wrote: post #32

Yet another reason to ditch cars. The car is an engineering disaster and it's time has past. I know this will be a shock to some people.

The car may be an environmental disaster, but I don't see how it's an engineering disaster?

It fulfils the desire to go from point A to point B in relative comfort at relative speed, at reasonable cost that scales to the local economy. US market cars tend to have lots of extraneous features and not be suitable for rugged roads; less developed economies get models with fewer comfort features, but a more robust suspension for use where roads are more aspirational. Autorickshaws are common in some places and unknown elsewhere, etc.

Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#83

Post by makeitdouble »

rkangel wrote: post #71
hd95489 wrote: post #60

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.

You’re giving Ford the benefit of the doubt that it will work as described and won’t be abused.

Have they earned that reputation regarding automated systems, and how will they deal with false positive/bugs etc. when the wrong car is repossessed at the worst time for its owner ?

Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#86

Post by Kon-Peki »

toast0 wrote: post #66
lukevp wrote: post #49

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely they would do this for leases instead of sales? Why would Ford want to do this for sales anyway, in the case of a sale, the financing company pays ford in full. The only exception would be if ford financed the car with its own financing arm. Incentives could be aligned to make leasing the preferred option for most people who are likely to miss payments then. Also I’m not sure you’re correct about the ownership…

> Why would Ford want to do this for sales anyway, in the case of a sale, the financing company pays ford in full. The only exception would be if ford financed the car with its own financing arm. Ford has a huge financing arm. And it will probably get bigger as interest rates rise, because they have more room to offer lower than market interest rates as a hidden discount without dropping the purchase price.

Their financing makes money on the differential between the rate they pay on demand notes and the rate they lend to car buyers. Anyone (well, US Persons at least) can buy the demand notes [1], which are currently paying 4.75%. So as long as they are lending at an average rate above 4.75% after defaults and other problems I guess they are in a good position. But they can also move money around internally, I suppose, to make lower rates possible.

[1] https://www.ford.com/finance/investor-center/ford-interest-a...

Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#87

Post by trelane »

sokoloff wrote: post #80
rkangel wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Exactly (on both sides). We should help people to find and choose cars they can 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.

> Exactly (on both sides). We should help people to find and choose cars they can afford.

I'd personally much prefer to make public transit that is so good that everyone uses it.

Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#89

Post by touisteur »

rootusrootus wrote: post #42
touisteur wrote: post #34

Thus making payment even less likely... I used to be a big proponent of alcohol/drug test to prevent car starting, ideally I imagined the system would be with an absolute guarantee (mandated) the information stays local (just a hardware switch preventing ignition or startup). But I'm sad to say I don't believe in any more, so much abuse to mark people as 'tries to drive while under the influence' or making you pay hi…

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…

I was thinking breathalyser ignition interlock but yes, probably high rate of false alarm, although we could probably make it far better if used so much, even wireless, wearable... I know higher standards (such as emissions) tend to encourage cheating but dammit I'm tired of people killing each other like this.

I'm also extremely tired of people veering into the fucking bikelane while phoning, texting, hands off talking on the phone, and sometimes (to often) just 'checking' the damn cargo with my two kids inside. So they can get to work 'on time' and spend 15 minutes at the coffee machine. Dammit.

Make it impossible to interact with in a moving object, cut the data and phone, I don't have the answer or a patent but this is killing so many people for very, extremely selfish and stupid reasons...

But since we're OK for the road being some kind of far west, Dashcam it is...

Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments

#90

Post by mauvehaus »

I feel like in order to patent a thing, you should need have to have a credible implementation of the thing being patented. An implementation of this clearly requires at least level 4 autonomy[0], which AFAIK, nobody has demonstrated.

This is only slightly closer to a real-world implementation than a patent for asteroid mining, never mind commercial viability.

Mind you, I don't consider that a bad thing; this is pretty dystopian, but still.

[0] https://www.sae.org/blog/sae-j3016-update

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