Ford Patented a Self-Driving Police Car That Even Writes Tickets

The Ford Motor Company — one of America’s ‘Big Three’ auto-giants — has a [troubling] vision of changing the way police officers issue traffic and vehicle citations.

Strange as it may seem, The Washington Post reports that earlier this year, Ford filed a patent covering its vision of an autonomous police car — an actual, next-generation police cruiser, which would be functionally equipped with technologies allowing it to issue traffic tickets wirelessly.

“The autonomous police cars may have cameras and lasers to detect traffic violators,” MotorTrend explains, adding that “Once [the autonomous police car] identifies a vehicle that is violating traffic laws, it pulls the vehicle over.”

At that point, with minimal intervention on the officer’s part, the car captures an image of the license plate; it then receives an image of the driver’s license, and ultimately uses that information to scan police databases and determine whether a warning or citation should be issued.

If that’s not creepy enough these cars are capable of being trained via machine learning to help ‘map out’ the best hiding spots — so as to “nab speeders and other types of traffic violators” quicker and easier.

When Are They Coming?

While the sheer thought of an autonomous police car roaming the streets is bound to irk the hell out of most drivers, it’s worth pointing out the inherent patent is merely a concept at this point.

And while the literature goes on to suggest that these cars may allow officers to devote their time to “more difficult tasks that can’t be automated,” it stands to reason we may never even see these things. Ford admitted that it’s unsure of whether these cars will ever be produced, saying in a statement issued to The Washington Post that “We submit patents on innovative ideas as a normal course of business. Patent applications are intended to protect new ideas but aren’t necessarily an indication of new business or product plans.”

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