Ford trying to patent system that reports speeding vehicles to police

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Well... who would have guessed that a company that championed ridiculously fast cars and sells 500+HP monstrosities would pull this dystopian bullshit?

DETROIT (WKRC) - The Ford Motor Company is attempting to patent a camera system that reports speeding vehicles to authorities.

According to WXIN, a patent application was filed by Ford titled "Systems and Methods for Detecting Speeding Violations." The application was published by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) on July 18, per the station.


Ford initially filed for the patent on January 12, 2023.

The station reported that Ford discusses using vehicles to monitor each other's speed in the application.

- How Ford's system reportedly works, per WXIN:

When an equipped automobile detects a nearby vehicle is traveling over the posted speed limit, it will use onboard cameras to capture an image of the speeder.
The equipped vehicle will then be able to send a report containing both speed data and pictures of the speeding vehicle directly to law enforcement or roadside monitoring units.
Car Scoops reported that authorities will also receive GSP location data.
Ford said in its application that the surveillance vehicles would make law enforcement's job easier because they wouldn't need to quickly identify violations and engage in pursuits, per WXIN.
Ford added that some of the work could be delegated to self-driving vehicles, which could also be equipped to detect speeders.
According to the station, because real officers wouldn't be present to witness the alleged speeding violation, it remains unclear what legal argument the automaker would have if it tried to implement the technology.

Speed cameras currently serve as stationary enforcement of speed limits, although they can only issue tickets based on a vehicle's license plate number because they are unable to confirm the driver's identity.

WXIN noted that Ford often files patent applications for emerging auto technology, but not all of those technologies make their way to production.

https://local12.com/news/nation-worl...mits-law-force

[dlphg9]

Good way to never sell another vehicle again.

[BWillie]

Now that we have the technology I really see no reason for any vehicle to be able to go over 85 mph

It would save hundreds of thousands of lives per year

It would be suicide for Ford though. People would just stop buying their cars/trucks.

[stanleychief]

I wonder if Ford is playing 4D chess here. If you have a patent on such technology, nobody else (in theory) would be able to develop a similar system without licensing it from you. Ford already sells a ton of vehicles to police departments, which would likely be the real customer of such a system. I doubt they were thinking of equipping consumer vehicles with this.

[Mephistopheles Janx]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Now that we have the technology I really see no reason for any vehicle to be able to go over 85 mph

It would save hundreds of thousands of lives per year

It would be suicide for Ford though. People would just stop buying their cars/trucks.

Why is access to that technology your lynchpin for vehicles being limited to 85?

[stanleychief]

I tracked down the patent and it looks like it does apply to 'law enforcement`, 'emergency vehicles' and 'autonomous vehicles' which are referenced in the examples. The patent does seem broad enough to cover consumer vehicles as well, but that isn't illustrated or referenced specifically.

https://www.patentguru.com/US20240239352A1

The mention of autonomous vehicles is interesting. I could see a scenario where an agency would purchase several autonomous vehicles with this system and set them loose on a highway. in that case these would essentially be mobile speed traps.

[Bump]

Originally Posted by BWillie

Now that we have the technology I really see no reason for any vehicle to be able to go over 85 mph

It would save hundreds of thousands of lives per year

It would be suicide for Ford though. People would just stop buying their cars/trucks.

you can still die at 85 mph, I'm sure you could find a study that 35-40 mph is the fastest you can go without having fatalities in car accidents or drastically lowering the fatality rate.

Let's just go full reerun with it, for safety sake!

[nicksdad]

This tech exists and is used abroad . We are in Italy and it is here