BEFORE YOU BUY THAT NEW CAR, ASK YOURSELF ONE QUESTION: WHO REALLY CONTROLS IT?
Over the last decade, Ford has filed patents covering technology that goes far beyond horsepower, heated seats and better gas mileage.
We're talking about vehicles designed to potentially watch the driver, track eye movement, determine where occupants are looking, recognize faces, identify drivers, collect biometric information and monitor people inside the cabin.
Ford has patents covering eye-movement monitoring and driver activity.
Ford has patents covering driver identification through facial recognition.
Ford has patents covering occupant location and gaze detection.
Ford has patents covering facial-recognition vehicle entry.
Ford has patents covering biometric identification inside the vehicle.
And then there's the one that should make every person who finances a vehicle pay attention:
Ford filed a patent application called “Systems and Methods to Repossess a Vehicle.”
The system described sending payment-delinquency notices directly to the vehicle system, disabling vehicle functions, placing the vehicle into a lockout condition, restricting where and when it can be driven through geofencing, and using vehicle cameras and sensors during the repossession process.
Yes, that particular patent application was later abandoned. But the fact remains: Ford publicly patented and described these concepts.
So here's the question:
At what point does your automobile stop being YOUR automobile and start becoming a computer-controlled surveillance device that you merely pay for the privilege of operating?
You buy the vehicle.
You make the payments.
You put fuel in it.
You insure it.
You maintain it.
But inside that vehicle can be cameras, sensors, biometric systems and software capable of knowing who you are, where you're looking and what is happening inside the cabin.
And the technology isn't going backward.
So I'll ask it plainly:
How many people are going to buy a 2027 Ford?
And while we're at it:
How many people are going to buy ANY new vehicle from ANY automaker without first reading the patents, privacy policies and connected-vehicle terms?
Because the biggest question isn't what your car can do.
It's who gets to control what your car can do after you buy it.