Ford's "repossession system computer" — a car that punishes you for late payments

Looks like Ford wants to become a landlord but with cars.

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If a major utility company filed a patent application for a device that would deliver electrical shocks to people who got behind on their bills the correct response would not be “Relax, everyone. It’s just a patent application, we don’t even know if it’s going to be granted.” The correct response would be “why is my utility company even considering this kind of nightmarish dystopian idea?”

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there’s a philip k dick book – i forget which – where the protagonist gets stuck in his apartment because he can’t find a quarter to pay the door to let him out.

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One of my old jobs was handling subprime loans for a major bank, which often included repossession. While a lot of the people we handled were deadbeats (and whoo boy there are stories), I know at least 3 times where we issued a repo request on a car when we had a payment, completely due to human error.

You hear stories weekly about police knocking down the door (or worse) of the wrong house. Fully paid off cars get repo’ed often enough that I know exactly where my PIF letter and title are, just in case. I can’t think for the life of me why this would be a good idea for anyone.

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Remember the time Tesla just increased the range for all their cars when the weather was bad and people were trying to leave Florida? Turns out they all had the maximum range built right in. The feature was just denied to the people that bought the “smaller” battery pack.

But yeah, this is BS. Cory Doctorow has something to say about it I bet.

In fact, now that I think about it, I seem to remember reading a classic Sci-Fi where the car pulls over, locks the door and waits for the police. Might have been Heinlein?

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It’s from Philip K Dick’s Ubik.

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(These systems are inexplicably getting more popular in recent years. And don’t get me started on e-bikes!)

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Every corporation’s business model these days prioritises rent-seeking.

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What do you mean “after?” I’m not convinced it would take that long. If this ever gets anywhere near development, I’m sure the schematics will be leaked long before the vehicle is completed. I mean, unless they just publish them somewhere because why would the car’s electronics need security?

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We closed out the loan for my 8-year old car, bought used, just last week. (It was rebuilt so I couldn’t get a direct loan for it, but it’s a perfectly fine car.) My nesting partner and I were only half joking when we pondered starting to save up for the next one for whichever of our cars stops working first.

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Well the good news is, car makers are notoriously terrible at writing software. This means if Ford ever actually produces this, it will be defeated within 8 minutes and the exploit will be sold as a CanBus dongle you can buy on Amazon for $8.

The hackers will save us all, in the end.

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That does not sound like a Farr Better Deal.

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This is an over-the-air patch away with Teslas.

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If it’s not already in there.

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So… the fact that they would even consider this bullshit is yet another reason to never buy a Ford?

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Meaning if it ever gets installed in cars a whole bunch of people who did nothing wrong are going to be impacted, just like the hundreds of people charged with felony auto theft due to Hertz’s screwy system.

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A rule of thumb I’ve heard is whenever you fuel up you should put aside that same amount of money for your next car.

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Hm. Picks up soldering iron, diagonal cutters, other tools.

RPC wakes up. “I… I can’t feel my car! OMG, I CAN’T FEEL MY CAR!”

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Knowing Ford, what will happen is that five years later, they switch to another system. At ten years, the older system will get knocked off by accident because no one remembers what that computer was for.

Then, with the lack of an okay signal, the migration of older Fords back to what used to be the dealers begins.

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IF they drive themselves back to the dealer, that’s the new disney pixar movie, Repo Cars.

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