With the ubiquity of Spotify Premium, Tidal, and Apple Music, it is almost impossible to imagine a point in time when blissfully listening to music in the car was interrupted by annoying radio DJs and irrelevant advertisements. 

If you rode in another person’s car and you did not have an iPod, forgot a pair of headphones, or they did not have one of those adapters that connected to the car’s cassette player, you were out of luck. 

Or even worse, one minute, you could be sitting in traffic, enjoying a new song by your favorite artist, only to be sent scrambling across your radio presets the minute the DJ begins a 10-minute-long block of advertisements or a 20-minute-long discussion with a cohort of unfunny cohosts.

However, as in-car technology evolves to center much of the software-driven experience around the big screen on the dashboards of new cars, a new patent issued by Ford  (F)  seeks to serve drivers with ads in a way that will make them rethink driving. 

As if billboards weren’t enough

According to a recent report by Motor1, a new patent from Ford that was published on August 29 shows a new system that can utilize various vehicle factors to deliver ads to the screens inside new cars. 

The system, which is formally titled “In-Vehicle Advertisment Presentation Systems And Methods,” shows a system that uses data not limited to just your location, the places you traveled, the route you logged on the navigation system, local traffic data and how fast you are going to determine how many and what kind of ads to display on the screen and through the speakers in Ford cars. 

In the detailed description part of the patent filing, the inventors behind the patent state that the system can also consider some very specific factors regarding the type or frequency of ads displayed. 

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Such factors include if a vehicle is in a specific drive mode, where the inventors imagine when a vehicle is in a comfort, eco, or other standard mode of driving, the controller may infer that more ads can be presented as compared to when the vehicle is in an off-road or performance mode. 

In addition to that data, the Blue Oval’s patent has the ability to also analyze data related to how Ford car owners react to the ads in their cars, which could go as far as seeing if a user grips the volume knob when an audio ad is presented, which can make the system “learn that the user either does not like the subject matter of the ad to the user does not like audio ads.”

The system can also be configured to silently display ads on the infotainment screen when people in the car are talking and play ads with audio when they are not. 

Additionally, it could be configured to listen for specific keywords in people’s conversations that indicate the car’s destination. For example, if passengers talk about their best bowling scores or debate whether California rolls or salmon sashimi are better, the system can serve ads for bowling alleys or sushi restaurants, respectively.

A privacy nightmare

Knowing that a person is eavesdropping on a conversation in public is already a very creepy scenario in real life, but a car essentially replicating this behavior with advanced software unlocks a Pandora’s box of privacy concerns. 

Today’s connected car technology is a gold mine for data, which has previously benefitted car companies. 

Though Ford’s recently patented technology tracks driving habits to serve ads, a September 2023 report from the Mozilla Foundation’s Privacy Not Included series revealed that automakers can collect way more information.

Their findings show that they can also take in data beyond driving habits, such as facial geometric features, behavioral characteristics, biological characteristics, sex life or sexual orientation information, sexual activity, genetic data, religion or creed, and philosophical beliefs.

As part of an investigation triggered by Mozilla’s findings, the office of Senator Edward J. Markey (D-Mass.) sent letters in December 2023 asking questions to 14 automakers, including Ford, about their data practices and urging them to implement and enforce stronger privacy protections in their vehicles. 

In response, Ford said that it gives its customers the choice of whether they want to share connected vehicle data with the automaker. The Blue Oval claims that drivers can turn off vehicle connectivity entirely or restrict sharing vehicle data, driving data, and/or location data with the automaker. If turned off, it adds that its customers cannot use applications or services that rely on such data.

In a statement to TheStreet, a Ford spokesperson said:

“Submitting patent applications is a normal part of any strong business as the process protects new ideas and helps us build a robust portfolio of intellectual property. The ideas described within a patent application should not be viewed as an indication of our business or product plans.”

“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.”