Ford Is Planning Automated Police Cars And Skynet Is Coming For Us
Ford is designing systems that would permit fully-automated police cars that could, with all the coldness of science, dish out arbitrary punishments to law-breaking drivers.
Patent applications from Ford reveal the company’s plans to automate police cars so that they could send warning messages direct to your car, issue fines and points penalties over the airwaves, chase offenders down or even take direct control of your car’s steering, brakes and throttle against your will.
Officers could sit on board if they wished, but they wouldn’t be needed. On-board artificial intelligence, described as ‘deep neural networks,’ would let the crafty car seek out the best places to hide in order to catch rule-benders and breakers in the act.
It would also be linked via the Internet to CCTV, number plate recognition cameras and static speed cameras, which could all help PC Ford zero in on its targets. The idea is to ‘free’ police staff to catch crims that computers never could. But… we can’t be the only ones who find this deeply unsettling, right?
Take this quote from The Times:
“Mark Skilton, of Warwick Business School, said that Ford’s patent was realistic. Autonomous police cars could also have the ability to take over the controls of suspect vehicles, he said.”
Intriguingly, the documents describe the future Robocop(car) as dealing with infractions made not just by human-driven cars, but by automated ones as well. How would automated cars break the law without outright consciousness, and how could you possibly punish anyone for it if they did? A fine for the manufacturer, maybe? A slapped bumper for the car?
This one raises more questions than answers, and, frankly, for the sake of steering Earth clear of a The Terminator scenario, we kind of hope it doesn’t get built at all.
Source: The Times
Comments
That won’t end well…
Yesterday I saw the second episode of electric dreams and it’s about that but creepier
Really Ford? You couldn’t find anything more pointless to throw money at?
…you mean the obvious future towards which automotive technology is pacing ??
The Crown Vic will be dissappointed
So if the autonomous car engage a chase and manage to stop the running car. Does the criminal driver have to step with his own will into the autonomous car?
Couldnr you then reengineer it so you can control the police cars and make them fine each other everytime or even so they chase each other? But after all i dont really want to have that here
The Illuminati called. They said dont move
This can’t go well…
Good luck trying to stop this with your fancy technology
Not that hard
You would be immune to wireless car communication but they would still pull you over
Reminds me of Fast 6
in the future they be like, “sir do you have any idea why my car pulled over yours”
Well I’m glad I drive a 50 year old car.
Exactly. Good luck taking over a 60’s muscle car. I know if this goes through that’s what I’m getting. Of course, this new Big-Brother esque tech would lead to the oppression of enthusiasts and the eventual revoking of all cars ill-equipped for being fined.
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