VW offers vehicle tracking after a carjacking

Ford Self-Repossessing Connected Car Nightmare: The Case of a Zero-Energy Next-Generation Autonomous Car

So when we look at how car technology is advancing in the years to come, it’s worth drivers everywhere asking this: Who is all of this for, anyway? Is the auto industry going to be saved by this next generation of cars, or is it going to save the planet?

Ford applied for a patent for a system that uses connected car technology to assist in vehicle recognizability. This week, the patent was published and it describes a number of procedures around repo-ing cars when payments are delinquent.

Those include sending messages to the owner’s smartphone or the vehicle itself, locking drivers out entirely, disabling functions like air conditioning, geofencing drivers to only operate within a certain time or set area so they can still get to work, and in one especially harrowing example, enabling an autonomous car to just drive itself to an impound lot — or a junkyard if the car’s market value is determined to be below a certain threshold.

Currently, that process is a lot more low-tech, but it’s still infamously predatory and lacking in oversight. If an owner is behind on their payments but still able to pay, it is possible for a state like California and New York to have a situation similar to ours.

Depending on the state of the loan agreement, the right of car owners to get their loans reinstated depends on what parts of the agreement they want to modify. If they cannot get their car back, it could be swiftly sold at auction.

Source: https://www.theverge.com/2023/3/3/23624328/ford-self-repossessing-car-patent-connected-car-nightmare

Predicting the Pandemic: The Rise of Connected Autonomy and Car-Net Safe & Secure Services in the US

Ford’s patent, however, takes this idea to a galaxy-brain level, concocting multiple scenarios where connected vehicle data and autonomy can be used to immediately retrieve vehicles if owners slip up.

The supply chain crunch was happening before the outbreak of the Pandemic, and people had a harder time paying for cars because of the increased cost. According to Kelley Blue Book, by the end of last year, the average cost of a new car in the US was nearly $50,000. The new EV crop is more expensive than the previous ones at around $65,450 per vehicle.

Finally, car companies may have taken the worst lessons from the car shortages of the pandemic. The result has been cases like General Motors hitting pause on the production of its most popular trucks to “maintain optimal inventory levels,” leading to fears that supply could be kept artificially low in order to maintain sky-high prices.

They have spent years taking advantage of market conditions and ramping up car prices. Now they’re coming up with high-tech ways to hit owners back if they can’t pay up.

Even if you take Ford at face value there, this kind of thing absolutely can be done. The world of auto industry is not a place where manufacturers give their consumers their best interests in mind all the time. And while connected car technology is still in its relative infancy, it is only a matter of time before those cars enter the used market or the tech spreads to cheaper vehicles.

Volkswagen has announced changes to its Car-Net security system after a “serious breach in process” delayed law enforcement from using the service to locate a vehicle stolen with the victim’s child still inside. VW will offer five years of free Car-Net Safe & secure connected emergency services in the US for the most model year of 2020 to 2023 cars, from June 1st.

Lake County Deputy Chief Christopher Covelli said that similar tracking services from other car manufacturers typically assist police during extenuating circumstances. “The detective had to work out getting a credit card number and then call the representative back to pay the $150 and at that time the representative provided the GPS location of the vehicle,” said Covelli to the Chicago Sun Times. “Obviously, it’s a major concern when there’s information that could potentially save a life and there are major hurdles that one has to jump over to try to get that information.”

The Sun Times reported that VW’s strict adherence to company policy delayed law enforcement by 30 minutes. Thankfully, the missing child was located by police officers, unharmed in the vehicle later abandoned in a parking lot. The pregnant mother was taken to the hospital in serious, but stable, condition.

VW said in a press release it would do better for everyone and the law enforcement officials tasked with protecting them. “In addition to a full investigation of what went wrong and actions taken to address the failure, we want to make it right for the future.”