Ford recently filed a patent to utilize information about drivers that would be used to show them advertisements while driving, according to Edmunds.
The info comes from a Motor1 report released last week, which detailed a patent that would collect information about drivers to determine ads that would be displayed across screens in the vehicle.
According to the patent filing, information collected would include a vehicle’s route, destination, speed, traffic, travel history, and details about conversations happening within the vehicle to create tailored ads.
Automakers collecting data like this from drivers is far from new. General Motors came under fire when it came to light they were collecting data on drivers’ habits to share with insurers to justify hiking up insurance rates, which recently led to the automaker being sued by the state of Texas.
The issue is particularly complicated when these same automakers have been fighting to prevent independent repairers from accessing critical diagnostic data in the name of data security.
Following the revelation that major automakers would share driver data without a required warrant, pressure has been placed on the Federal Trade Commission to look at how automakers are collecting and using data; but current consumer privacy laws have nothing that would stop Ford from enacting such a technology.
A Ford spokesperson noted that the act of filing a patent, however, does not indicate plans to deploy it in any product.
“The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans,” the spokesperson stated. “No matter what the patent application outlines, we will always put the customer first in the decision-making behind the development and marketing of new products and services.”
