In 10 years there will be love songs about your car leaving you.
In 10 years you won't be able to buy a car anymore.
"You will own nothing and be happy."
And broke. And not actually happy.
Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
541–550 of 568 posts
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#542Earlier quoted context omitted.
Why did you feel the need to give the working class guy a hard time for doing his job? He probably makes an hourly wage or a commission on the vehicles he returns to rightful owners and now he’s facing not making any money for the day or possibly being fired. He was operating lawfully and you decided it was your job to enforce your justice. I don’t know, just seems wrong. I think it would have been more noble to take…
A couple of thoughts to consider: Zeroth, there really is no substitute for losing your home. Not being taken in for the night, not a shelter. First, morality and legality are not identical. Second, not doing something is a choice. Not acting and acting both have moral implications. Third, systems are at times very good at pitting individuals against other. An employee can say "they are just doing their job"; meanwhi…
I think the moral thing is to let the guy do his job that he is lawfully doing. Buying him off night buy the person a night but doesn’t solve any problems and only lets someone feel good for doing the minimum - bribing.
If you really want to help then take the person in or get them a hotel or take them to a shelter. Help them get their vehicle back by paying fines and the payment. It’s a lot more work but solves the problem better than hassling a guy, involving police, and then bribing the guy to go away for a night.
The only person to benefit from this is the guy who gets to feel morally superior while bragging about it on the internet.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#543Earlier quoted context omitted.
A couple of thoughts to consider: Zeroth, there really is no substitute for losing your home. Not being taken in for the night, not a shelter. First, morality and legality are not identical. Second, not doing something is a choice. Not acting and acting both have moral implications. Third, systems are at times very good at pitting individuals against other. An employee can say "they are just doing their job"; meanwhi…
I think the moral thing is to let the guy do his job that he is lawfully doing. Buying him off night buy the person a night but doesn’t solve any problems and only lets someone feel good for doing the minimum - bribing. If you really want to help then take the person in or get them a hotel or take them to a shelter. Help them get their vehicle back by paying fines and the payment. It’s a lot more work but solves the…
Not particularly out to brag. Annoyed at the lack of a systemic solution. Random lady in a RV should not have to depend on random angry italian immigrant having cash in wallet, being more angry than tired that day, and having been made aware of a situation by loud shouting.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#544Earlier quoted context omitted.
Patent examiners (the modern term for patent clerks) have at least a bachelors degree in a technical field relevant to the subject they review. That might be physics, engineer, chemistry, or something else. Examiners are assigned to specific art unit (e.g. an examiner with a degree in chemistry might be assigned to art unit 1710 and spend their entire career examining patents for chemicals involved in "Coating, Etchi…
Patent examiners are being moved to a system where they are "automatically" assigned applications to review that may or may not have anything more than superficial in common. I've got a parent that's a patent examiner and they have been complaining loudly about the move because they often don't know much about what they're reviewing anymore.
That's too bad, I had not heard about this.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#545Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
There are conversion kits and electric crate motors [0] that are available to enthusiasts. The problem is that EVs and traditional ICE vehicles are built very differently. In order to fit enough batteries, the batteries are usually built under the vehicle in what's called a "skateboard". You can't do that easily when retrofitting an ICE vehicle, so you end up sacrificing trunk space. Modern EVs are also much more lig…
> Modern EVs are also much more lightweight and aerodynamic than ICE vehicles
It's probably worth noting, just in case anyone is accidentally misled here, EVs are vastly heavier than ICE equivalents, but most of the delta is the battery, and the frame and supporting structures are often lighter.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#546Earlier quoted context omitted.
You're implying poor people don't understand a car payment. It's a pretty simple you owe x per month. I'm sure there are some who are so financially illiterate they don't understand, but I imagine the vast majority of poor people understand how much they're going to have to pay, and would prefer a company take a chance on them because it lets them get to their jobs.
Please refrain from commenting if you can't do it without putting words in my mouth. These people are forced into owning cars by a reality of our country that's not changing soon: we're pretty damn car-centric. But they're being taken advantage by a system that uses unethical and even illegal tactics to squeeze them between a rock and a hard place. The government can either do something upfront and probably save a to…
Sure maybe society puts them between a rock and a hard place because it requires a car. But how is the dealership forcing them to need a car, or tricking them into getting a car?
They're just selling it to them, the individual is looking at the payments, they knows it's gonna be a stretch and they are rolling the dice hoping they can afford it.
The relationship between the individual and the dealership doesn't sound very exploitative to me.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#547Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks for the info. I wonder if anyone's repurposed these radios/SIM/whatever for free 5G/LTE traffic.
How would that work?
Take out the SIM from the car's network interface module and put it in a phone/modem. If they're restricting by IMEI you may need to spoof that.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#548Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
Everyone assumes the tech will be self driving, but it doesn’t need to be.
The repo man can just use the 5G connection to locate the car, drive to it, unlock the car start the ignition and drive it away.
This would work today just using the APIs all modern Fords already have.
There are rumours this already happens for some car models:
> https://tiremeetsroad.com/2021/03/18/tesla-allegedly-remotel...
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#549Earlier quoted context omitted.
How would that work?
Take out the SIM from the car's network interface module and put it in a phone/modem. If they're restricting by IMEI you may need to spoof that.
Do we think ford even bother with SIM cards? Lots of modern 5G devices have e-sims etc, much easier for the factory floor if SIM card can be loaded via software too. None of my families cellphones have physical sims anymore either.
Re: Future Fords could repossess themselves and drive away if you miss payments
#550Earlier quoted context omitted.
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
This seems like stuff that should never be privatized or under non-police control. Police hires company to tow stuff away sure, but not "some random bumblefuck have right to do the police's job of "law enforcement"
> This seems like stuff that should never be privatized or under non-police control.
I lived in a city that had it's own towing department. One evening, I parked in a spot that turned into a tow zone the following data at 7am. The next morning, I got to my care at 6:58am, and a tow truck was parked right in front of me with the driver enjoying a coffee. I quickly hopped into my car, put the key in the ignition, turned it, and....nothing. My battery was dead.
I got out, walked up to the tow truck driver and explained the situation. He backed up his truck, got out the cables, gave me a jump start, and I was on my way. I always wondered if a private service with possibly different incentives would have done the same.