From Ubik [1], by Philip K. Dick:<p>The door refused to open. It said, "Five cents, please."<p>He searched his pockets. No more coins; nothing. "I'll pay you tomorrow," he told the door. Again it remained locked tight. "What I pay you," he informed it, "is in the nature of a gratuity; I don't have to pay you."<p>"I think otherwise," the door said. "Look in the purchase contract you signed when you bought this conapt."<p>...he found the contract. Sure enough; payment to his door for opening and shutting constituted a mandatory fee. Not a tip.<p>"You discover I'm right," the door said. It sounded smug.<p>[1] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ubik</a>
The problem with this is that I think it plays on good nature of people. Ford right now says it's for leased cars but it feels like a step to normalize restricting and milking people later on. It also open a whole new attack vector these companies are not ready to secure
Financing is a cancer upon many industries, and cars are no exception. If we really cared about poor people we would seriously reform the dealer system, outlaw predatory sales and lending tactics, and seriously curtail the parameters on auto loans. I think limiting the term on loans for new cars to 5 years would be a good start. It would eliminate a lot of foolish purchases and auto makers would be forced to offer more affordable vehicles.
So given that they have the legal right to come to your house and forcibly take a leased car from you if you miss payments, a few nag features honestly seem like an improvement.<p>I would just want to be sure as hell that a car I own outright wouldn't even have the hardware available to do such a thing.
I can easily imagine another HN headline after such a patent is implemented:<p>Ford sued in death of individual after A/C was shut off during a heat wave<p>Depending on which features may be affected, many different things could have drastic effects. The A/C shutting off is just one example. Another may be losing your map navigation at 2-3AM while driving through the south side of Chicago (or the dangerous areas of some other city). There are probably many different types of features that, during some edge case, could put a life at risk. And, if that life is lost, both Ford and the leasing company may be considered at fault.
The software in my '21 F150 is flakey. Every time they push an OTH update, they fix one bug whilst breaking 2 other features. I don't trust any vehicle with this feature not to erroneously leave me stranded on the side of the road.
"You are travelling over 60 miles an hour. You are not licensed for this, so the brakes have been disabled until you upgrade your license..."
Hopefully ford patents this and then decides to bury it so nobody else will be able to use it. Too much potential for abuse by 3rd party, or even nefarious actors.
Honestly, the notion of private vehicles has to end if the planet has even a sliver of a chance for survival. But it's going to take a lot to change the habits of people used to owning their own planet destroying vehicles (yes, even EVs), let alone getting to the point that private vehicle travel is anything more than an occasional treat.<p>So as an individual who loves cars, guiltily, although I find such inventions creepy, I also recognize these things as the sour medicine required to heal the planet, and the greater good.