Ford Patent for In-Vehicle Advertising

Ford submitted a patent to run in-vehicle advertising on their infotainment screens. To be clear, that does not mean it’s guaranteed to be in your next new Ford. All it means (for now) is that Ford is protecting the idea from being stolen by the competition. But here’s roughly how it’d work.

The Ford patent for In-Vehicle Advertising would use GPS…

Ford would the vehicle’s GPS & navigation system. And it would filter data on vehicle location, direction, set routes, speed, and traffic to predictively display relevant advertisements to the driver. The vehicle would display more frequent ads in lower speed, congested, higher commerce environments. Additionally…

The Ford patent for In-Vehicle Advertising would use audio signals…

Ford would use the hands-free / bluetooth microphones to tap into in-vehicle conversations & pull keywords in oder to predictively place ads on the vehicles screen. Live phone conversations (and potentially your phone search history) would also be monitored in the same way.

Examples of how this might work…

1) You clicked a Target ad on your phone last week. Your phone is now connected to your Ford, and you’re heading in the direction of a Target. Result: You get a Target ad on your Ford’s infotainment screen asking if you’d like to be redirected. 2) Your Ford knows that your last oil change was 5,000-miles ago, and there is a Ford dealership on the next exit. You get a notification. 3) On a roadtrip, your passenger asks, “Are you getting tired?” You start seeing ads on your vehicle’s screen for Starbucks and/or hotels along your route. 4) Your child says, “Mom/Dad I gotta use the bathroom!” And boom – your Ford pops-up an ad for Buc-ee’s 10 miles ahead.

Admittedly that might not be all-bad… so long as no one ever utters the words Disney, Universal, or Orlando lol. But in all seriousness, there’s a bigger, more intrusive picture here…

Invasion of privacy…

At times it might be convenient, and that’s no-doubt how it would be sugar-coated & packaged to consumers. But the bigger picture here: It’s an overreach, and an invasion of privacy. By law, your vehicle is an extension of your property. Therefore, they are coming onto/into your property… and installing monitoring devices. And then selling that information. They are selling the content of your conversations. And they’re monitoring your driving patterns, habits, & travel routines. Hell – they know where your kids are.

This is theft of your freedom & peace behind the wheel. It’s a new form of censorship. Not the kind that ‘suspends your account’ for saying an off-color joke… but the kind that makes you 2nd-guess every trivial thought before you say it. If this goes into production (by Ford or anyone else), Ford would sell you a new vehicle… and then YOU would become the product.