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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

#91

Post by macinjosh »

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.

I can see it now: A cash-strapped, frazzled single-mom parks her car on her driveway to unload groceries, leaving her child in the car seat while she carries bags inside the garage. While the mom is walking toward the door the car repossesses itself and heads back to the dealership, child trapped inside.

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

#92

Post by macinjosh »

trelane wrote: post #87
sokoloff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

No such thing exists.

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

#93

Post by sokoloff »

trelane wrote: post #87
sokoloff wrote: post #80

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

Sure. Make better public transit and many people will choose the null car.

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

#94

Post by PaulHoule »

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.

In the 1970s my dad found that American car dealerships had no interest in selling small and economical cars at all.

Japanese car dealerships have been this way recently, before the pandemic hit we tried to buy a new Honda Fit and had to buy a used one because they had none in inventory because, allegedly, the factory had washed away in a flood but they had a row of 50 CR-Vs made in the same factory. The dealer tried to push us into one of those.

The automotive press uncritically reports that American consumers are crazy about huge vehicles but what I've observed is that dealers are crazy about selling huge vehicles. Before the pandemic you would frequently see small cars were selling out as fast they arrived on the lot but dealers would have a sea of huge and expensive vehicles and be offering $8000 or so in incentives to sell them. If small vehicles were really unpopular it would be the other way around.

There are rumors that Toyota and Honda would love to kill the Corolla and Civic but the quality of those vehicles is so legendary and the attachment of owners is so fanatical that they know people aren't going to "trade up" but will be paying new car prices for high mileage vehicles.

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

#95

Post by kube-system »

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.

> prevent americans buying cars on finance that they are never going to be able to afford

The issue is that "Making finance accessible to low income Americans" and "predatory lending" are approximately two sides of the same coin. And so it is not politically popular.

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

#96

Post by kube-system »

makeitdouble wrote: post #83
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.

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 ?

I suspect it would be dealt with in the same way that human error is dealt with today.

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

#97

Post by danbruc »

mauvehaus wrote: post #90

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 pret…

Isn't this perfect then? Once someone can actually implement it, the patent will have expired.

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

#98

Post by Gorbzel »

mauvehaus wrote: post #90

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 pret…

> I feel like in order to patent a thing, you should need have to have a credible implementation of the thing being patented.

Reduction to practice is absolutely a requirement of patent law in the US.

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

#99

Post by darod »

Didn't Tesla have one of their cars drive out of a garage so it could get repo'd. I don't see how you can patent "a car driving itself to get repossessed". After you patent autonomous driving why does the location it drives to matter whether showroom or scrap yard?
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