Ford has applied for a patent for a technology that lets vehicles repossess, or repo, themselves.
If owners ignore warnings about missed payments, the system would start disabling itself, starting with features such as GPS, air conditioning, cruise control, and the radio. Then it could make loud and irritating sounds when the driver is present, and finally it would lock the owner out of hte car.
If the owner still doesn't act, the vehicle could drive itself to a spot for a tow truck to pick it up.
The company told NPR it has no plans to roll this out anytime soon. It's also worth noting that Ford doesn't have autonomous vehicles yet, and that submitting patents is a part of the normal course of business.
Complete sexual assault case folios containing intimate details were among more than 300,000 files dumped online in March after the 36,000-student Minneapolis Public Schools refused to pay a $1 million ransom. Other exposed data included medical records and discrimination complaints.
China has restricted exports of high-tech metals gallium and germanium, which are critical to making chips, in response to the U.S. blocking them from access to advanced chips.
Technology has changed the way people do everyday tasks, including grocery shopping. Cheddar News took a peek at a smarter way to shop with an AI-powered shopping cart.
Threatened by possible shortages of lithium for electric car batteries, automakers are racing to lock in supplies of the once-obscure “white gold” in a politically and environmentally fraught competition from China to Nevada to Chile.
