In March of last year, an eyebrow-raising Ford patent application surfaced for a technology that would allow the brand's vehicles to repossess themselves. Essentially, if you missed the payments on a Ford with any sort of autonomous or semi-autonomous driving capability, your car would get up and walk out of your driveway on its own and call a tow truck. However, it seems that Ford decided to ice its plans for self-repo technology, as the patent's status is now listed as "abandoned."
According to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Ford's self-repo patent submission was abandoned due to "Failure to Respond to an Office Action" on October 20, 2023. It seems like the automaker just let it expire. Perhaps Ford saw some of the public backlash following the initial unearthing of the application, as many people felt the technology was a bit too dystopian.
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