Ford Motor Company has filed a patent for a a peer-to-peer vehicle rental system that could be used in future Ford vehicles, Ford Authority has learned.
The patent was filed on May 17th, 2021, published on October 24th, 2023, and assigned serial number 11798069.
The Ford Authority Take
A little over a year ago, a new Ford patent was filed that introduced an idea for a system that may wind up allowing Blue Oval vehicles to be used by outside apps. Aside from using external services to better maximize a vehicle’s available resources, particularly with an eye toward autonomous technology, this feature would allow users to hail a ride and even plug into a vehicle’s computing power to recreate a gaming environment, or just have a cool or warm place to spend some time in the event of inclement weather. Now, this newly filed Ford patent keeps that notion going by introducing an idea for a peer-to-peer vehicle rental system.
Much in the vein of Turo, this system would enable vehicle owners to rent out those models to others for a designated amount of time for a select price, albeit one that aims to do so without requiring the user to turn over sensitive information or provide data to the owner. Additionally, this system would also allow the owner to remotely control some functionality of the vehicle – which is big given the fact that more than one person has had their vehicle stolen or abused in some manner after renting it out on Turo.
With more people looking to services such as this to rent vehicles for a short period of time – aside from ride sharing options and traditional rental car companies – this seems like a pretty useful idea, particularly for those that like to use their vehicles to make a little extra money on the side and may also have concerns about existing platforms.
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