Looks like every company wants to extract rent, from software to cars, ownership is going away. Time to claw back.
Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
471–480 of 568 posts
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#472Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every new Ford on sale today in the US, from the cheapest Maverick to the most expensive F150 configuration, now has remote monitoring and access via 5G as standard - it's needed if nothing else to offer the apps to remote start and unlock the car that consumers just expect now. Its generally the same industry wide. > https://www.ford.com/support/category/fordpass/
Is it always connected or do drivers need to pay a fee for connectivity?
Car connects free for itself, and loads navigation, traffic, location on app etc. If you want a wifi hotspot, thats $300 a year from ATT network 2ith 22GB fast speed per month.
Source: my car.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#473The problem with this isn't the idea of a car repossessing itself per se, because repossession is already a legitimate thing; it's the idea that your car can be remotely controlled by anyone other than you. There are already so many things that can go wrong. I don't want to buy a car that can be remotely disabled because I drove near a protest, or because there was a "clerical error" at Ford, or because my payment di…
Tech literate people often complain about buying portable consumer devices and not "really" owning them. This is a whole nother level of control loss. Not only do you not completely own the hardware but in the worst case scenario, the hardware can remotely be used to restrict freedom of movement or kill you and others. I personally wouldn't recommend buying an electric vehicle unless it's extremely dumb or is capable…
I think a much better bet (though expensive) is to convert a somewhat old car into an electric one with fully custom firmware. I hope someone would be able to commercialize conversion kits for the most popular vehicles in operation today.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#474In college, a roommate of mine was double-parked, or parked in a fire zone, or something, in our 8-house cul-de-sac. He ran upstairs to get something from his room, and a tow truck appeared (this all happened in well under 5 minutes). When he came out, he argued with the tow truck guys a bunch, but they kept hooking up his car and arguing back and couldn't be reasoned with, etc etc. My friend sat on the hood to keep…
In many places where illegal parking is common, tow truck drivers stage close by or hire spotters so they can hook up cars quickly. They can make a lot of money hauling away cars from drivers who only plan to stop for 2 minutes. https://nyti.ms/3xW9OQX
They even park/hide the picked car closeby to come & pick another one. Parking the car out of their own place is illegal, but it goes like other things.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#475Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it always connected or do drivers need to pay a fee for connectivity?
Car connects free for itself, and loads navigation, traffic, location on app etc. If you want a wifi hotspot, thats $300 a year from ATT network 2ith 22GB fast speed per month. Source: my car.
Cool, thanks. What happens if it doesn't have a connection with the cell network? Do those features still work?
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#476Earlier quoted context omitted.
I saw someone's RV getting repossessed over $50 in 2019. They were clearly living in it. I walked over and handed the repo guy $60. He wouldn't take it. This was in a cul de sac. I parked my truck across the way so that it would not be possible to enter or leave the cul de sac. Someone called the cops. The cops showed up after a few minutes, good response time. The lady living in the RV was told that she could not pa…
Aren't repo guys usually just contracted out to do the job and pull the vehicle by the lender? They don't usually have the authority or facilities to take a payment on site.
Some do have some methods approved from banks. Like either pick the car, or get this much money in these payments forms only (& give a receipt).
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#477Earlier quoted context omitted.
Is it always connected or do drivers need to pay a fee for connectivity?
Always connected, no fee. Although the car (at least my 21) also offers a cellular wifi hotspot that appears to use the ATT network[0]. No clue what the monthly pricing is, I've never signed up for that trial. I have the lowest spec, cheapest car Ford had available and it still has the cellular antenna. I checked, and at leadt on an ecosport the cell antenna is very easy to remove and doesn't impact functionality of…
Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone's repurposed these radios/SIM/whatever for free 5G/LTE traffic.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#478The problem with this isn't the idea of a car repossessing itself per se, because repossession is already a legitimate thing; it's the idea that your car can be remotely controlled by anyone other than you. There are already so many things that can go wrong. I don't want to buy a car that can be remotely disabled because I drove near a protest, or because there was a "clerical error" at Ford, or because my payment di…
Brace yourself then, because the future of automotive is highly connected, and in many ways it already is. Every car since the early 2000s has computerized components that control everything from power steering to infotainment systems, and your car probably already communicates with some servers using a built in cellular sim. Hackers have been able to compromise cars for at least a couple of decades, and while car ma…
I recently was working on highly connected autonomous public transportation. Can confirm that connectivity is only increasing, and that cloud connectivity is going to be a hard requirement in the future.
As for security, while the automotive manufacturers are aware of dangers, and standards like ISO21434 https://www.iso.org/standard/70918.html are driving them towards better security engineering practices, there is a huge gulf between process/compliance/governance, and truly secure engineering practices as a core part of engineering culture.
Many/most of the people working on the on-board systems come from an embedded development background that doesn't include pervasive connectivity. That's a problem. They might check the boxes to appear secure, but they aren't necessarily invested in the process.
My prediction; there _is_ going to be a severe and widespread automotive security event which cannot be ignored, before that culture shifts.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#479Well 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.
Any guide I can follow as to how to become a "car guy"? I've long wanted to become one, for precisely the same reason as you, but unfortunately Google is filled by SEO garbage now that I'm struggling to find any general direction.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#480Earlier quoted context omitted.
Every new Ford on sale today in the US, from the cheapest Maverick to the most expensive F150 configuration, now has remote monitoring and access via 5G as standard - it's needed if nothing else to offer the apps to remote start and unlock the car that consumers just expect now. Its generally the same industry wide. > https://www.ford.com/support/category/fordpass/
My 2013 F150 periodically asks me if it should upload a “Vehicle health report”. I have always declined. The idea of a vehicle repossessing itself does bother me. In the early 2000s I bought a vehicle from Mitsubishi, financed through them. At the time, setting up an automatic payment through them cost a monthly fee, so I set it up through my bank instead. About 3 years later I got a call from them threatening reposs…
Yeah what happens when someone gets out to pump gas with their child and phone in the car and fords automated repo algorithm decides is the optimal time to drive away.