Ford patents an ad-focused system that listens to conversations in the car

Ford could soon be serving you personalized ads from the comfort of your… car.

There was a time when people had to whisper to avoid being heard by the wrong ears. Now, in the era of smart devices, we’ve also got to worry about our smartphones listening to our conversations for advertising purposes.

But the eavesdropping situation seems to be reaching new heights with Ford’s recently published patent, which shows “systems and methods” that assist with showing more targeted ads.

The document also discloses that to achieve this goal, the new technology would listen to conversations that take place among people in the vehicle.

The patent filed by Ford Global Technologies reveals that the new technology would be able to listen to conversations and analyze data such as where the vehicle is located, its speed, what road it’s on, and whether the car is in traffic.

The system would also use information on the driver’s destination and location history to predict what kind and what length ads to show them.

Listening to passengers' conversations would also help the company learn how they react to the ads and the best times to run them through audio and human-machine interface (HMI) systems installed in the car.

For example, the system would be able to reduce the number of ads when people in the car are talking or release one when it's quiet in the vehicle, reports the auto news publisher Motor1.

While such a system would rely heavily on data, the patent doesn’t show the collected data would be protected. Nevertheless, as with many issued patents, the released document doesn’t guarantee that the invention will be implemented in the future.