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A comment on Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed. Parent comment

Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by nkozyra on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @10:43AM (#34970519)
> A technology like this means that the vehicle still belongs to Ford, which means if something goes wrong with it, or if you get sciatica from their shitty seats, you can class action sue them into oblivion.

Nothing prevents that from happening now, though. I'm also uncertain how reclaiming the collateral for the loan is any different in this scenario.

Granted, I think this is extraordinarily gross and consumer-hostile. Aren't there myriad of options on the table for reclaiming the vehicle? How often does someone "get away" with keeping a car, anyway? That's what the repossession industry exists for.

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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by CydeWeys on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @12:47PM (#34972380)
Doing an actual repo is much more costly and sometimes involves doing PI stuff like trying to track down the location of the vehicle. The cost of one repo easily wipes out profits on many months' worth of interest payments.
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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by anonymouskimmer on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @12:52PM (#34972436)
> Granted, I think this is extraordinarily gross and consumer-hostile.

It seems like a good idea for stolen autos (at least until the car can be modded to remove the ability, so recently stolen autos). As long as there are enough checks to ensure that only the owner (or law enforcement with a warrant) can repossess the car. There just has to also be a requirement that the lease holder can't lawfully repossess without a court judgement.

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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by astura on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @01:07PM (#34972636)
Repos are extremely costly. My friend let his car get repossessed because he did not need it anymore thinking they'd just be "even." He was surprised to get sued for the cost of the repo.
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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by chongli on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @01:14PM (#34972720)
I wonder how costly it would be if one of these self-driving cars killed a bystander while repo-ing itself.
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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by kube-system on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @01:26PM (#34972879)
Probably similar in cost to the people killed by human tow truck drivers.
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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by frumper on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @02:23PM (#34973618)
That sounds more costly for the tow truck driver than for Ford.
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Re:Ford seeks patent for cars that ditch you if payments missed by anigbrowl on Tuesday February 28, 2023 @04:41PM (#34975246)
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