Ford’s Newest Patent Is for a System That Farms Your Data to Serve You In-Car Ads
Ford has filed a patent for a system that uses all sorts of data points to help determine what kind of in-car ads to serve to you, according to a report from Motor1.
The system parses mountains of data, such as your destination, route, speed, travel history, traffic, and more to determine types of in-car ads that it could display on the car’s various screens. Ford will then gather information on the back end regarding how its drivers interact with said ads, to help it “understand the user’s tolerance for a particular advertisement’s count,” said Motor1, quoting the patent.
More than just passive data gathering, though, this system appears to have an audio component. Future Ford models could listen to your conversations, to perhaps reduce the number of ads that show up during conversation or to focus on what you’re saying to help better hone in on the type of ads that it might serve to you. Suddenly, uttering “man, I sure could use a burger” to your co-driver could spawn an ad for the nearest Chili’s.
If we’re being honest, yet another step on the seemingly inevitable march toward ubiquitous surveillance is not at all appealing. It’s also not surprising: GM used to have a system called Marketplace in some of its vehicles that would enable users to order food, make dinner reservations, and more, but it shut down that system in 2022. However, expect the idea to resurface again in some other form in the years to come.
As automakers hunt around for new sources of revenue, the idea of becoming a “tech company” and somehow monetizing the millions of terabytes of data generated by drivers every week gets ever more attractive to the bottom line. Remember, most of your internet experience is subsidized by advertising models that allow you to access videos, songs, and billions of stories online for free. It’s a dark bargain, but one that has become so normal in our everyday lives that we don’t think twice about it.
If you needed another reason to hold on to that older car, maybe this is your sign.
UPDATE 09/05/24: After this article was published, a Ford spokesperson reached out to Hagerty with the following statement:
Submitting patent applications is a normal part of any strong business as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a robust portfolio of intellectual property. The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans. No matter what the patent application outlines, we will always put the customer first in the decision-making behind the development and marketing of new products and services.
If Ford will give me a Mustang GT 6-speed for free I’ll allow in car ads. Otherwise forget it.
“Ford will then gather information on the back end regarding how its drivers interact with said ads, to help it understand the user’s tolerance…”
Question: will its interface recognize a boot kick through the screen as credible data to help it understand one’s tolerance?
Like I had enough reasons to never, ever desire, shop for, or purchase a FoMoCo product in my lifetime, this – THIS (are you listening Ford?) – is the absolute cherry on top.
👍👍👍👍
to help it “understand the user’s tolerance for a particular advertisement’s count,”….. How about ZERO tolerance? Commercial radio station ads are bad enough…. I do NOT want my car to throw advertisements at me.
Looks like I am holding at 2012 (max) for the indefinite future. The more I learn about new cars, the less I want one.
Ford just keeps coming up with more and more bad ideas. First recently they want their cars to report on your driving and speed. Now they want to market to you while driving.
GM was working to add marketing to their cars but I noted it never really went anyplace. I think they dropped it due to customers not wanting it.
The people doing these in dash car items really are disconnected from the rest of the engineers. Need no more proof than the message I get while driving that says not to take my eyes off the road yet they send the message while driving?
The original reason for the incredible after market stereo equipment surge…
Crappy factory radios with commercials..
A cassette/8 track/CD tape player…gave us what we wanted, then and now…
Music with….NO COMMERCIALS!…
This is precisely why I pay for a Sirius/XM radio subscription. $7 a month was never spent so wisely.
I would venture to say that “the user’s tolerance for a particular advertisement’s count” … is zero. And that the time-to market for undetectable hacks and patches that bypass surveillance and marketing… is about two days.
Ford wants to report our speeding, give us ads. What kind of hellscape does Ford want to bring to us? Screw you Ford, I’m not buying anything new from you. Ford’s Quality Control is Job # 2 so between that and the latest intrusions they are looking to implement someday I have no interest. My user tolerance is zero as in I won’t buy a car with it.
The need to monetize every aspect of the automotive industry, beyond the high price of purchase, lives large; the selling of driver data to insurance companies; the subscription model for accessories you paid for, on and on, and now a patent application for tech that may allow Ford to monitor your conversations in YOUR car to determine how much you dislike their 3rd party ads so that they can send something less obnoxious to your screen. Sorry Ford, you’re losing us.
This is yet another reason to keep Ford out of my driveway. People should boycott Ford for this intrusion.
Oh, wait there’s more: ford, garbage motors and fiat/stelantis have been hurtling toward being irrelevant for years. That is nothing new. They’ve taken their incumbency for granted too long. Leave them to continue to atrophy and self-destruct. I’m with Honda (except for that “Prologue” rebadged chevrolet abomination.
I guess that Ford wants automobiles to join the ranks of personal computers, smart phones, streaming services, and data base searches in intruding on our personal activites and privacy. To make it even worse, they insult you with stupid commercials for lousy products and then tell you, “We’ve only trying to alert you to things you might find interesting and useful.”
I do talk (sometimes yell) while operating my ‘71 Bug. It occasionally replies, but doesn’t try to sell me anything. Fine with me.
Whoever had this great idea needs to be taken down to Fort Rucker and used for bayonet practice.
And this won’t contribute to distracted driving? And I glean from other comments that they believe they will be told if their car has these features. LOL