Ford Seeks Patent for Autonomous Police Cars

The patent was submitted to the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) in January of this year.

According to the patent, an autonomous police vehicle could be equipped with processors connected to other fully or semi-autonomous vehicles, enabling it to detect potential violations of one or more traffic laws. These processors may include sensors, navigation and mapping technology, a traffic law database, recording equipment, and communication systems that could be used to alert drivers to pull over when traffic laws are broken.

Whether future vehicles are semi- or fully autonomous, if a traffic violation occurs, artificial intelligence-driven police cars could be present on the roads.

Perhaps there will no longer be a need for many police cars with officers behind the wheel. No more parking tickets placed on windshields by uniformed officers. Instead, if you commit an offense that violates traffic regulations, the autonomous police vehicle could automatically transmit the information to an administrative office, which then issues fines — or in the worst case, revokes your driver’s license.

This future may sound like something taken from an exciting science fiction novel, but we are fairly certain it could become reality. Today, many new vehicles are already equipped with cameras and systems that collect vast amounts of data. This has been legislated and approved in various regions, and autonomous police vehicles may simply represent the next step.

Such a system, combined with the use of surveillance cameras on roads and in cities, would rely on wireless communication networks to confirm violations and use the collected information to identify individuals suspected of committing offenses.

This method could also involve the processors within the autonomous vehicle itself, enabling the police car to pursue another vehicle. The system may further allow the onboard processors to execute one or more actions in relation to the vehicle being pursued.

However, this remains only a patent application — like thousands of others that may ultimately end up gathering dust in an office archive. Nevertheless, considering the rapid development of autonomous vehicles and the firm regulatory decisions governments worldwide must make regarding road safety, autonomous police vehicles could very well become an aspect of our future.