Today’s cars are pretty smart. With cameras and sensors taking in data, cars can alert you to stopped traffic, tell you when you’re leaving your lane, parallel park for you, and even pull over when the driver is incapacitated.
There’s one more neat trick to add to that list: Lost animal reunification. A patent published by Ford yesterday describes a system in which a vehicle will be able to identify animals on or near the road using the car’s onboard camera, compare them to a database of lost pets, and send forlorn pet owners a notification that their pet has been spotted.
The patent describes how the system determines whether that random dog you just saw on the side of the road might be someone’s lost companion, using information from that database and comparing it to the car’s images and location via a cloud-based network.
The information may include pet description/profile/images, pet’s last known location, pet’s owner details including owner’s contact details, recommended search radius based on pet’s maximum velocity/ date/time when the pet was last seen, and/or the like.
In some aspects, the server may receive the animal images from the vehicle, correlate the animal images with the pet information stored in the server, and determine that the animal detected by the vehicle may be a lost pet or a pet of interest. In an exemplary aspect, the server may perform image analysis on the animal images obtained from the vehicle and the pet images stored on the server, and may determine a matching percentage between the animal and pet images based on the image analysis.
After the system determines the animal spotted by the car might be a good match, it sends the owner a notification, which “may include the animal images captured by the vehicle and the vehicle location.” Depending on how it’s configured, the system can also notify a local animal recovery agency to retrieve the animal and facilitate a reunification.
Ford says the system can operate while the car is moving or when parked, so there doesn’t even have to be a driver present to capture the information. Here’s a simple step-by-step for how the system works:
The patent doesn’t stop there. According to Ford, the car might actually be able to detect whether the animal is equipped with a tracking device, then activate the system to start taking images:
In further aspects, the vehicle may determine the animal presence by using a pet tracking device such as a pet chip or a tracking collar worn by the animal/pet of interest, via a vehicle’s telematics control unit (TCU). When the vehicle determines the animal presence, the vehicle may activate the vehicle camera(s) to capture images around the vehicle. The vehicle camera may then capture the animal images, which may be transmitted to the server as described above.
In a world where this tech exists on cars, the occupants of said cars can play a more active role in the reunification process, if they so please. The patent describes how, when a lost animal is determined to have been spotted, the server can send pre-recorded messages to the car to keep the dog from running away, or even put the pet owner in direct contact with the lost animal. From the patent:
The pre-stored message may be in the pet owner’s voice, which may facilitate the vehicle to interact with the animal/pet of interest in the pet owner’s voice. Responsive to obtaining the additional inputs, the vehicle may output the pre-stored message via a vehicle speaker or sound exciter. In some aspects, the messages may not be pre-stored, and may be obtained in real-time.
While I love this concept, there are some pretty glaring privacy concerns here, which Ford doesn’t seem to mention in the patent. Suppose this sort of system can use cameras to run images of dogs through a database to identify them – what’s to stop it from running images of people through a database as well, and transmitting their location? I’m not saying Ford would agree to such a move, but it feels like it’d be very easy to implement.
Considering there are a bunch of government-run and private systems that already do facial recognition, it’s not exactly groundbreaking tech. At least Ford wants to use it for good, right?
Top graphic images: Ford / USPTO; DepositPhotos.com
what if the dog doesnt want to see your face agaiin? have you checked?
Man this is some George Orwell shit. Getting people to pay for a Business to track them and sell their data and make money. How is this a good thing? If they can use cameras to see every animal they know exactly where you are how fast you are going and don’t be surprised if there are cameras facing inward. Hell I might move to communist China where I would have more freedom.
It’s nice that they’re considering something positive and unusual/clever like this as a hypothetical, especially since it could have just been using people as the example. Or maybe that’s just already patented.
The level of networked mass surveillance implied by this is truly horrifying.
Hey the government could identify illegal immigrants with this as well.
The government could identify and track anyone they wanted, as could many private organizations. And then presumably all of them leak all of their cloud-stored personal info in plain text or something.
You’re assuming that “lost” dog wants to be found by their (former) people again.
Not all do.
When I was in HS, my parents found a lost Cocker Spaniel puppy in the street during their Sunday evening walk. They bought him home, I bathed and fed him, we treated the gash on his nose, and we put an ad in the local paper saying we had found a lost dog.
No replies.
We named him “George”
About a week later my Mother saw an ad for a lost Cocker Spaniel.
She called, the young woman came over and identified her dog. Apparently he was a gift from her BF and the gash on his nose was from her Doberman.
And his name was “Brodie”
So off he went.
A couple weeks later, George/Brodie showed up at our house again.
I bathed him and fed him and Mom called the young woman.
She came the next day to collect him and took him home.
About a month later, I heard Mom in the kitchen saying “George – Is that you?” She had been making her morning cup of tea, looked out the window and saw George across the street. She opened the front door and called out – and he came running.
I bathed him and fed him and Mom called the young woman and left a message.
And she tried calling her a couple more times.
George never left us again.
The young lady loved George and realized he was better off with your family
I wonder how accurate this system will be. I have a hard time believing that it’s accurate enough to differentiate between two golden retrievers.
Good news Becky/Aiden Hallencourt-Mires-Smith! We’ve found 10,456,881 labridoodles that match yours. Would you like the GPS coordinates of each?
Tell your werewolf / worgen friends they now have the same privacy issues as regular humans.
Like a lot of folks, I’ve rescued a few animals from the side of the road over the years, but it’s gotta be no more than a half-dozen in over 40 years of driving all over the country. I appreciate the intent to reunite lost pets with their families of course, but is this such a widespread thing that it should be a built-in feature on some future cars? Cars are already so complicated, and Fords in particular are known for all sorts of bugs in production models, does it really behoove them to do stuff like this? I’d be happier with Ford if they:
1) Really built stuff right to begin with, instead of using the first three years of customers as unpaid beta testers.
2) Did something to stop dealers from putting added premiums (or unwanted dreck) on desirable new models, increasing their cost to buyers by as much as 50% (in the case of the hybrid Maverick).
3) Cut back on the crazy amount of plastic parts in their engines, and reduce the design/engineering seemingly intended to make cars impractical to fix in well under a decade: wet belts, etc…
Ford will of course charge you for the ability and sell your information
If this makes it to production, I am gonna put on a Bandit Heeler mask and start some shenanigans all over town.
Driving a Ford, this will be a useful feature to assist in retrieving your dog after sending it out to find a tow service.
I’m reminded of this obligatory xkcd
https://xkcd.com/1425/
OK, we’ve reached the point where a smartphone can identify an animal, even a species of animal.
But an individual animal? From millions?
Hahahahahahahahahahahaha
If AI facial recognition gets humans wrong, no way is Ford designing a system that can do AI on a stray Labrador while driving past at 70 miles an hour.
It might not need to be THAT accurate. Assuming you can limit matches to within X miles of your house, how many unattended labradoodles can there really be? Most owners of lost pets would gladly sort through a dozen false positives if it meant finding theirs. The bigger challenge would be to teach the system to ignore dogs that are in their own yards or being walked by their owner, or in a dog park, etc. And, honestly, GPS collars have gotten pretty cheap and are a way simpler solution to this problem.
The Ford Barko
Ooh, Subaru will not like this…
Okay that’s funny
Nice goal, intrusive technology to accomplish it. No thanks. If you see a dog wandering around just call Animal Control.
This would actually be perfect for animal control vehicles. Ford already makes the police interceptor Explorers and the Expedition SSV.
Leave it out of consumer vehicles, it sounds like a privacy nightmare.
That is why they are pushing it on happy news but tracking you.
This reeks of the new Flock AI nonsense being pushed on us all. Ring offers this now as well (I’ve opted out for it myself). Our privacy at home and in public is dwindling as it is. All this new spyware is being pitched as a societal benefit and that only cold, heartless people wouldn’t want it. Well, call me cold and heartless then.
Ford does rely on alot law enforcement vehicles sales and has been going to to software mainly for fleet management and ERP but the jump to law enforcement software isn’t that far. Maybe cad intergration with facial recognition right in the vehicle. Fun stuff.
Maybe to sell to law enforcement giving them access to every vehicle. Because hey that animal looks like a lost animal we had a complaint on and we just happened to see Jose illegal immigrant so we picked him up. Honest your honor we weren’t looking for illegals we just had time to search for a lost dog and found this guy.
This is a very sweet idea, but given the current political climate, I’m assuming it would be tweaked to track people. 🙁
China and England already do using mostly stationary cameras and phones, I bet it will be on vehicles soon there if it hasn’t already.
I’ve had a pet lost before. It’s a terrible feeling. Any help in recovering them is a plus. I for one would like to see this become reality.
How old is the patent? Because using an ST hatchback (I think it might be Fiesta based on proportions) in the illustration is a real kick in the dick for this former Ford hatch fan.
It was published to the patent site yesterday lol
Do you have the actual application number? The link in your article just comes up as “unauthorized”.
I think it’s a Focus ST, based on the tail lights and the spoiler. The Fiesta ST tail lights are more vertical, have the backup light vertically in the middle, and don’t have that big cut into the bodywork.
Focus was my first guess, but then the spoiler swoops had me second guessing. It definitely has the Focus gas filler door instead of the round one on the Fiesta.
Also in #304 that van looks shocking like a Transit Connect (first US gen) which is my daily.
I can see the tear jerking super bowl commercials now
All I can think of is that meme with the screenshot of a cat being identified as a “vehicle”
For the system to work, it seems like this needs to be in as many cars that have cameras as possible to increase the search level, but by patenting it, they will restrict it to Ford cars only, severely restricting its effectiveness (unless they plan on giving the rights away free).
Or licensing the rights.
Good mention the normal camera angles for driving aren’t really aimed at the areas a stray might be in. Really of the cameras for regular driving pick up an animal it is right before they get hit.
Ford would absolutely monetize this system to all forms of law enforcement or anyone else who would pay. Corporations cannot be moral, they are only able to be money making machines. They don’t owe anyone anything unless you are a shareholder, then they owe you constant gains at all cost. Ford or any other company would sell your privacy, location, image, likeness, or any data they can scrape off you for pennies if it would net them another income stream.
Yup. Screw this idea. It may be with the best intentions, but I believe those tend to be the path to hell.
No marketing says best intentions but really monetize it to law enforcement and arrest immigrants
Yes. the idea that the system would be used only for canine recognition and not for human recognition is highly doubtful.
And the system have would have to be looking for humans, in order to differentiate between a stray and a dog being walked.
Also, good like being able to identify on golden retriever from amother.
As a Ford shareholder I can say with full confidence that Ford sucks at being a moneymaking machine. It constantly underpreforms the market and I’m still negative on stocks I got from the year 2000.
Suggested notifications:
“Your pet was sighted on North Bend Rd. at 8:36pm on 27 June 2025.”
“Your pet was struck by a vehicle on North Bend Rd. at 8:37pm on 27 June 2025”
“Your pet’s carcass can be recovered at the Public Works building before 1 July 2025.”
That’s dark. I still gave you a star, but it may not be for everyone.