Ford Tries to Patent a Dystopian Future Where Self-Driving Cars Repo Themselves

Ford has filed a patent for theoretical tech that would, among other things, allow its vehicles to repossess themselves if a driver falls behind on car payments. The U.S. Patent Office published the company’s application last Thursday, February—about 1.5 years after Ford first filed it. AdvertisementIn the automaker’s dystopian, proposed and patented version of reality, a couple skipped car payments would trigger a cycle of in-car consequences—or a “multi-step repossession procedure,” as it’s called in the document. And still, if the lockout doesn’t work, Ford has filed to patent tech that would allow its vehicles to self-repo. This is not the only absurd patent Ford has filed for its vehicles.