3 days Ago By Lorraine Sommerfeld
Article content I warned you last week that your car was invading your privacy to a very uncomfortable degree. That it was definitely taking names, if not kicking ass. Most of us know the second we put an app on our phone we’re opening another portal some corporate tentacle will reach through — and violate (or at least drink deeply from) our words and actions that once could be private.
Looks like an auto manufacturer might skip over the app part. Ford has announced its application for a patent — just an application, no promise to implement — to “ use several different sources of information to customize ad content to play in your car,” explains MotorTrend . How do they customize these ads? By listening to your voice commands.
By listening to conversations you’re having with your passengers. Note: You should probably start considering all your conversations are being listened to, even if Ford doesn’t go ahead with this invasive species. My last column lays out the fact cybersecurity in the car world is so shoddy, your every burp and fart — and worse — are being heard by someone else.
The Ford patent is just the next step in what it does with all that information. What’s the benefit of hearing me complain about my kids or hope those towels are still on sale? Well, if your vehicle overlords know where you’re going — and they do, thanks to what you’ve entered into your nav system — they can helpfully offer you up a coupon code, or alert you to a sale on sheets while you’re scoring the towels. Take the bait, they’ll know they have one on the line and start chumming the waters.
Think about it: if your passenger mentions they’re hungry, and you have the typical “I dunno, where do you wanna eat?” conversation, the car comes to the rescue with restaurants in the area it already knows you prefer . Because it’s been listening to you for years. When I use Waze , popups come in from restaurants I’m passing.
But it’s for those who chose to pay for the service, and I don’t think I’ve ever stopped at one. It’s not because I whined out loud to my car about needing a coffee. It’s information, much as a roadway sign will let you know if you can get a Big Mac or a Whopper at the next exit.
The Ford patent application is a reminder that we’re far beyond quaint scattershot advertising, and into the realm of targeted invasion. I understand ad dollars are best spent on a delineated audience for the best ROI, but I resent my car covertly riding shotgun on private conversations in aid of selling me something. Facebook recently admitted what we’ve all suspected for years.
Cox Media Group was outed by Apple Insider as boasting it used something called Active Listening that “effectively performed surveillance on a user” and “that it has partnered with Amazon, Facebook, and Google, which acted as data sources and allegedly as clients of the service.” Google subsequently took CMG off it Partners Program, Meta said it’d look into it, while Amazon said it didn’t do work with CMG. I wish I could go back and tell my mother that I wasn’t snooping on my sisters, I was Active Listening.
I am now at the point where I don’t know anyone who hasn’t had creepy phantom ads because of Facebook. Phone in your pocket, conversation with a friend about pool tables, and in an hour you’re getting ads about pool tables. It didn’t stop until I no longer had Facebook on my phone.
It’s why I have almost no apps on my phone — a futility I fully recognize. What if you aren’t interested in specific ads? The Ford patent is more of the same. Sigh .
It would know if you’re in heavy traffic or bad weather (all those sensors and cameras to the rescue!), and helpfully deliver your ads in audio or visual format, whichever would be sure to not interfere with your driving ability but while also not missing a shoutout from your favourite burrito joint. As MotorTrend notes, “hate the ads? The system can infer based on how you react ..
. do you click the ‘get a promo code’ button on the screen? That’s a positive interaction. Do you voice your displeasure out loud? The system is listening, and jots that down.
” Forgive me for detesting even polite surveillance. Auto manufacturers apply for many, many patents all the time. It’s usually a game of brinkmanship-by-car — securing a patent for an idea to keep it out of enemy hands.
By no means do they act on all of these patents; consider that nearly every manufacturer has long had patents that could bring car theft to its knees. That pox on society they could actually do something about; listening in on your conversations, however, that is something they can sell. If your car gets ripped off.
.. well, they can sell you another car.
None of this is surprising. Car manufacturers build cars to make money. As the industry roils (electric vehicles are costing makers a bundle, with profits not even around the next curve), they are looking to monetize everything.
You keep reading about having to pay monthly for things like heated seats and more engine power because you will soon have to pay monthly for things like heated seats and more engine power. When insurance companies let people volunteer to have their information recorded and shared in exchange for lower rates, it began an era of realization there was money to be made from not just selling a vehicle, but from monetizing that information. Initially, we were told it was stripped of identifiers and put into silos; we could just have a snapshot of anonymous driving habits and commute times.
Ha. Back in 2014, Ford filed for a patent that would turn your spare tire into an electric unicycle. You read that right.
The details from the patent as reported at Patent Yogi are awesome. “ A driver travels to..
.an urban setting congested by commuters..
. the driver disengages the unicycle using a control available in the car..
.The self-powered Unicycle is also disengaged automatically. Unicycle includes all essentials like a battery, an electric motor, a seat and footrests.
Driver then mounts the unicycle and drives to office.” I’d rather have a unicycle under my butt than a spy in the backseat. Sign up for our newsletter Blind-Spot Monitor and follow our social channels on X , Tiktok and LinkedIn to stay up to date on the latest automotive news, reviews, car culture, and vehicle shopping advice.
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