Here’s something to make you squirm: Ford has submitted a patent application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for an autonomous police car that could function “in lieu of or in addition to human police officers.â€
Now, companies always file patents for technology that may never get made, but an autonomous police cruiser seems like the logical conclusion to the development self-driving cars. But damn is it weird to read about.
The patent, first noticed by Motor1, describes how the hypothetical car would rely on artificial intelligence and use “on-board speed detection equipment, cameras, and [it would] communicate with other devices in the area such as stationary speed cameras.â€
There’s a number of other ideas in the filing that stand out: For instance, say a car runs a red light. “There may be [a] surveillance camera … as well as [a] roadside sensor (e.g., camera), each of which may detect violation of one or more traffic laws, by vehicle,†the filing says.
That camera or sensor would then transmit a signal to a central computing system, which would then transmit a signal to the autonomous police car to spring into action and catch the scofflaw.
All of which is to say: Yikes! Of course, this is something that’s decades, if ever, from coming reality—but it sure is wild to see put to paper.
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