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You may own a Ford vehicle and travel across
the border.
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But that doesn’t necessarily mean you want to
smuggle illegal drugs.
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And the automaker wants to make sure you don’t
accidentally participate in narcotics
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trafficking.
Ford recently filed a patent spotted by motor
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one for a quote unknown cargo detection and
evidence collection system that can use a
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vehicle’s various cameras and sensors to
prevent the vehicle from becoming a quote blind
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mule or someone who carries illegal drugs
across the border.
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Without their knowledge.
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The system is designed to detect suspicious
activity by monitoring for fluctuations in the
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vehicle’s weight, listening to any activity
around the vehicle that seems out of the norm
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and scanning for unfamiliar GPS signals since
that’s the most likely way a drug smuggler
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would track a vehicle and retrieve their cargo
after it crosses the border.
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As the report points out.
If the system does think something fishy is
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going down, it can turn on the cameras, make
recordings and store the footage so it can be
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used as evidence later.
It’s an interesting application for many of the
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cameras and sensors already included with
Ford’s vehicles,
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but it’s unclear if it will ever become a
standard feature.
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What’s also unclear is how a driver might react
to their vehicle,
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telling them there could be illegal drugs
planted on their truck.
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Would they jump out and try to give the drugs
back?
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Would they drive to the border crossing and say
you’re not gonna believe this?
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But neither option sounds great if the text
seems far fetched though,
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an I news source story pointed out in the
report said blind mule drug trafficking has
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been a strategy employed by Mexican drug
cartels for decades.
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And it’s resulted in some enormous legal
headaches for anyone caught smuggling drugs
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without realizing it.
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This isn’t the first time Ford has filed a
patent designed to catch lawbreakers.
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The company previously patented technology that
would allow its vehicles to detect other
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vehicles speeding around it and take photos for
the record.
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And last year, the company patented technology
that would allow for the remote disabling of
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features or let a self driving vehicle
repossess itself if the driver misses car
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payments, I’m Ben Munson and this is
manufacturing now.