A Ford patent would start disabling car functions if an owner misses payments and could eventually even drive it away to be repossessed.

… a Ford patent application titled “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle” was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) Feb. 23, although it was submitted to the agency Aug. 20, 2021.

The document describes using vehicles’ built-in data connections to remotely disable “a functionality of one or more components of the vehicle,” which would serve as warnings if the owner has missed car payments.

  • queerlilhayseed@piefed.blahaj.zoneEnglish
    1·
    2 hours ago

    We need to break the integration between hardware and software. If a machine can run software, then the software must be owner-auditable and owner-replaceable. If it’s not, then whoever owns the software will own the hardware forever.

    We also need safe, reliable, standard software for machines, and we need laws that enforce that machines be compatible with standard software before they can be sold.

    It’s a tall order, but I think the only other option is to continue down the path of hardware with corporate-dictated expiration dates and built-in surveillance.