Patents can be downright weird, but a lot of them have the potential to be of great use in the near future. Case in point -- Ford's new patent. It's safe to presume the new tech is designed for those using ride-hailing services all the time, especially those easily offended with certain smells.
A patent application filed April 9 revealed that Ford is working on a new system that will allow customers to pick out taxi or riding-hailing services depending on how the inside of the car smells. The automaker makes a logical assertion -- that while customers are informed of the plate number, model, and color of the car, they're not given the idea what the vehicle smells like.
While it may seem like Ford's point is the last thing you would care about given the situation of the world these days, certain smells indeed can bug the living life out of you. Moreover, a person with allergies can benefit from this kind of tech, most especially.
Ford's tech would use an environmental sensor to detect the nature of odors inside a car, which a customer can use by comparing the scents to a list of thresholds they've set beforehand. For example, if you call for a car and the sensor determines it smells of patchouli, which you previously listed as a no-no, it will change up.
That seems convenient, but it does open up some questions about ethics and privacy. If a driver is found to have a certain smell inside his car that a rider doesn't like, what will happen to him? Will he be penalized? Lose business? It's also kind of embarrassing in certain circumstances.
But considering how patent applications go, not all actually make it through production. There is still a chance that you will never ever get to pick a ride-hailing car according to what it smells like. Either get lucky or not.
Meanwhile, Ford seems ready for anything during these trying times. It's the first automaker to publicly announce that it expects its first-quarter sales lower than the target due to the coronavirus pandemic. Investors are reportedly expecting similar announcements from Tesla and General Motors.
According to Ford, it expects to report revenue of about $34 billion and a first-quarter adjusted loss of around $600 million. Last year, the automaker's first-quarter sales reached $40 billion.
Ford is expected to announce its first-quarter results on April 28.
