Ford’s latest in-car tech will make driving very annoying

With the ubiquity of Spotify Top class, Tidal, and Apple Music, or not it truly is miles almost very probably not to visualize some extent in time when blissfully listening to music your entire way through the automobile became interrupted by annoying radio DJs and inappropriate advertisements.

In the event you rode in some other person's car and likewise you nearly definitely did now not have an iPod, forgot a pair of headphones, or they did now not have a sort of adapters that connected to the automobile's cassette player, you were out of success.

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And even worse, one minute, you could be ready to be sitting in traffic, enjoying a new song by your favorite artist, simplest to be sent scrambling across your radio presets the minute the DJ begins a ten-minute-long block of advertisements or a 20-minute-long discussion with a cohort of unfunny cohosts.

On the opposite hand, as in-car technology evolves to center a lot of the software-driven experience around the enormous screen on the dashboards of modern cars, a new patent issued by Ford (F) seeks to serve drivers with ads in one way which is in a position to make them rethink driving.

As if billboards weren't enough

Based on a recent report by Motor1, a new patent from Ford that became published on August 29 shows a new system which is in a position to utilize large amounts of vehicle factors to deliver ads to the screens inside of new cars.

The system, which is formally titled "In-Vehicle Advertisment Presentation Systems And Methods," shows a system that uses data now not limited to simply your location, the places you traveled, the route you logged on the navigation system, local traffic data and the way fast you could determine what number of and the way a lot ads to display on the screen and through the speakers in Ford cars.

In the detailed description part of the patent filing, the inventors at the back of the patent state that the system have faith some very specific factors regarding the kind or frequency of ads displayed.

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Such factors encompass if a vehicle is in a selected drive mode, where the inventors imagine when a vehicle is in a comfort, eco, or other usual mode of driving, the controller may infer that more ads would per chance be presented as in comparison with when the vehicle is in an off-road or performance mode.

To boot to that data, the Blue Oval's patent has the ability to also analyze data related to how Ford car owners react to the ads in their cars, which can go as a ways as seeing if a user grips the volume knob when an audio ad is presented, which is in a position to make the system "learn that the user either does now not like the subject of the ad to the user does now not like audio ads."

The system be configured to silently display ads on the infotainment screen when people your entire way through the automobile are talking and play ads with audio once they're now not.

Additionally, or not it truly is miles ready to be configured to listen for specific keywords in people's conversations that indicate the automobile's destination. As an instance, if passengers speak about their best bowling scores or debate whether California rolls or salmon sashimi are better, the system can serve ads for bowling alleys or sushi restaurants, respectively.

A privacy nightmare

Knowing that a person is eavesdropping on a conversation in public is already an extremely creepy scenario in real life, but a car indubitably replicating this behavior with progressed software unlocks a Pandora's box of privacy concerns.

As of late's connected car technology is a gold mine for data, which has previously benefitted car companies.

Though Ford's recently patented technology tracks driving habits to serve ads, a September 2023 report from the Mozilla Foundation's Privacy Now not Included series revealed that automakers can bring together way more information.

Their findings show that they soak up data beyond driving habits, equivalent to facial geometric features, behavioral characteristics, biological characteristics, sex life or sexual orientation information, sexual activity, genetic data, religion or creed, and philosophical beliefs.

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As part of an investigation triggered by Mozilla's findings, the place of job of Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters in December 2023 asking questions to 14 automakers, including Ford, about their data practices and urging them to put in force and put into effect stronger privacy protections in their vehicles.

In response, Ford said that it gives its customers the number of whether or not they should share connected vehicle data with the automaker. The Blue Oval claims that drivers can turn off vehicle connectivity entirely or restrict sharing vehicle data, driving data, and/or location data with the automaker. If turned off, it adds that its customers should not use applications or products and services that place self assurance in such data.

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