Ford's Newest Plan to Punish Missed Car Payments May Go Too Far

A Ford Motor patent filing lists a range of ways to combat delinquent car loans. It includes vehicles that could repossess themselves.

What would get if you combined Repo Man with The Terminator?

We're not sure, but Ford  (F) - Get Free Report appears to have been giving the idea a lot of thought.

In effort to combat car-loan delinquencies, some people at the iconic automaker have let their imaginations go hog wild and have come up with a virtual FrankenFord that would pull also sorts of funky deeds when the payments stop coming in.

The company said in a patent filing that when a car is being repossessed "the owner is uncooperative at this time and may attempt to impede the repossession operation."

"In some cases this can lead to confrontation," the filing said. "It is therefore desirable to provide a solution to address this issue."

The filing describes technology that could remotely shut down a car's radio or air conditioning, lock the owner out of the vehicle, or honk the horn until the cows come home.

Autonomous Vehicles Could Take Off

The patent says that lockouts might be lifted momentarily in the case an emergency, so, for example, the vehicle could be driven to a hospital. 

But wait. It gets weirder. A lot weirder.

The patent also outlines situations in which a repossession agency's computer could communicate with the vehicle's computer.

A vehicle could be moved autonomously from the owner's property to another location where a tow truck could haul it away.

Or in the case of a fully autonomous vehicle, the car could hightail it out of the owner's garage and zip right over to the repossession agency, a lending institution, an impound lot, or any other designated location.  

It's kind of like what would happen if Robocop went into the repo business and became RepoCop.

The filing comes at a sensitive time, as auto-loan delinquencies are steadily increasing.

Data from Cox Automotive showed severely delinquent auto loans in January hit their highest point since 2006.

Auto-loan debt is the third-largest debt category behind mortgages and student loans. 

Auto Loan Delinquencies Rising

Overall, Americans owe $1.52 trillion in auto-loan debt, accounting for 9.2% of American consumer debt, according to the Federal Reserve Bank of New York.

The Consumer Financial Protection Bureau said in a Feb. 23 blogpost that car prices have risen substantially in the past two years, leading to larger loan amounts and higher monthly payments.

The agency said that recent data show an increase in auto-loan delinquencies, particularly for low-income consumers and those with subprime credit scores.

The bureau said it had issued orders to nine large auto lenders to provide information about their auto-lending portfolios.

But still, there's little chance that your car is suddenly going to say "hasta la vista, baby" and roar down the driveway by itself.

Ford said it had no plans to use the technology, telling Bloomberg that "we submit patents on new inventions as a normal course of business, but they aren’t necessarily an indication of new business or product plans."

See? You've got nothing to worry about...