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>all kind of disputes people have over the ownership At least where I am, when a car is registered the owner gets an "ownership" document, which is also regist
by ziddoap 5y ago
>all kind of disputes people have over the ownership
At least where I am, when a car is registered the owner gets an "ownership" document, which is also registered with the government. Lists the vehicle, VIN, owner, etc.
Would this not stop whatever disputes over ownership you're referring to?
- mrtksn 5y agoSure, you can works something out but it would also mean that the company will need to maintain a system for unlocking cars for each country according to the local regulations. Then they will need to deal with stuff like "Toyota unlocked the car of a Putin critic", "Audi refused to unlock the car of a pregnant woman who lost her keys during the emergency, the baby died. They previously unlocked the car of Joe Rogan's girlfriend". You also will have issues where the legal owner and the regular user are different people(i.e. father and son, romantic partners etc). Someone passes or the relationship sours and now you have people begging the car company let them use the car they have been using for years. You will also have governments demanding you disable the cars of people who have problems with the regime. In Philippines the government might demand lock down the cars of LGBT people, in USA they might lock down the cars of people with debt. Who knows? It makes the manufacturer part of the running the car just the way Apple and Google are part of running your phone.
- ziddoap 5y agoI don't know if it has to be that complicated. I own X car, and key is lost/broken/whatever. I go to my dealership, show my ownership. They validate it with the systems they already have (again, at least in my country) that communicate with the ministry, and check my ID. Done. All handled at the local dealership level (where they are already familiar with local laws, so it's not onerous to follow local regulation). >Audi refused to unlock the car of a pregnant woman who lost her keys during the emergency, the baby died. Starting to get a bit out of hand with speculation, I think. I don't follow the logic with this one. If there is an emergency, emergency services would be called rather than Audi. >Someone passes or the relationship sours and now you have people begging the car company let them use the car they have been using for years. Dealership says "Please provide ownership documents". It's not a complicated thing or a novel concept.
- gambiting 5y agoYeah and even if Audi unlocked her car, how does that help exactly? Why didn't she call an ambulance instead?
- mrtksn 5y agoWho knows what were the exact circumstances of that poor imaginary woman? Maybe The only ambulance driver in that little town she lives was her abusive BF? Anyway, the idea is that you will have circumstances where unlocking the car would save somebodies lives but due to procedures not covering situations like this bad things will happen and people will blame the manufacturer. The way system works will be a constant debate.
- ziddoap 5y ago>Who knows what were the exact circumstances of that poor imaginary woman? Maybe The only ambulance driver in that little town she lives was her abusive BF? I can make up millions of wild scenarios, as well. I'm sure a few will be true here and there. However, I don't think speculating about a hypothetical person with a hypothetical abusive partner who is the sole emergency responder in a hypothetical world where corporate Audi is the only other solution (what about taxi, uber, neighbor, cop, etc.?) to a hypothetical medical emergency is worth discussing.
- mrtksn 5y agoOkay, what is need for centralised key production mechanism that leaves out any 3rd party? Car theft? Big deal, insurance covers it. You can put the car into a garage, you can install your own tracker, the police can find it and there are many other ways to to steal the car and even if the car is not unlockable the "selling the parts" business model can still make it a target for the thief. What's the argument for leaving it to the manufacturer?
- ziddoap 5y agoMy entire comment chain started with me saying that ownership should not be difficult to prove because ownership is recorded on an ownership document and with the government, at least in my country. I'm not sure what you're arguing about anymore.
- gambiting 5y agoJust FYI, only super high end brands deal with trivial issues like producing spare keys themselves. If you lose a key to your Lamborghini then yes, you will be waiting a week to get a new key sent from Italy to you. But a normal Audi or KIA? The dealership does it - official dealerships have computers which can do this, and outside of authenticating with manufacturer's servers to issue a key, it's entirely within their purvue who they provide this service for. So no, Toyota doesn't really have any say as to who they make new keys for in Russia, other than providing official Toyota dealerships in that country with machines which can program new keys. After that point it's down to the dealer and to the local regulations.
- gambiting 5y agoSo a bit of a devil's advocate - when my dad passed away, my mum kept using his car but because it was registered in his name, and because the registration document was in his name, we ended up in an idiotic and bureaucratic situation where the car was due another annual inspection, but the registration document ran out of spaces for stamps the year before. Normally, this isn't an issue, you just go to the government office and they give you another blank registration document with more room for stamps(the stamps prove you had the car inspected basically). However, because the owner of the car(my dad) was deceased, there was no one who could do this, and the government official refused to issue the document to my mum as it wasn't her name on the document, not without the court documents proving that the inheritence proceedings have been settled(which took another 6 months). Yes, she could produce the death certificate, but that wasn't enough. So she couldn't get the car inspected, and therefore wasn't legally allowed to drive it. I'm almost certain a car dealership would accept a death certificate if she needed another key made, but my point is - yes, even with an official document stating who is the owner, you can still end up in some weird edge case scenario.
- maccolgan 5y ago>Yes, she could produce the death certificate, but that wasn't enough. So she couldn't get the car inspected, and therefore wasn't legally allowed to drive it. What if your dad willed the car to someone else? I suppose a death certificate isn't evidence of being the successor.
- ziddoap 5y agoThere are edge cases to everything, and there are already other solutions to this issue. But yes, death or debilitating illness is something that should be (and generally is, from the bureaucratic side anyways) considered in the context of asset ownership.
- FDSGSG 5y agoThis definitely wouldn't work in the EU, you might have some sort of official ownership document from one country but still sell the car in another.