What Is This Ford Mess in Germany About?

 Well...back around twenty years ago, the EU had this fantastic idea.  They wanted all cars in Europe to be manufactured with an 'alert' system, where if you drove off a cliff into a 'pit'.....you could push a button and this alert would go out.  Someone would come to rescue you.

The history to this?  Around 1999, some folks met up and discussed a 'problem'.  Folks today argue over this, and to be honest....cellphones were reaching a stage where they would have been the perfect answer for the problem.  But instead....this group of EU bureaucrats decided that a car alert system had to be the answer.

For about seven years, this idea lingered.  You couldn't find anyone much who favored the idea being pursued.

Around 2011, it got picked-up and dusted off.  Again, with cellphones suggested as the best solution.....that got pushed back, with the mechanism needing to be a button on  the car itself.

So in 2018, the standard was stamped by the EU....if you made a car, you had to have the alert-button/system included (not optional, but mandated).

When the wife and I went in 2019 to pick up the new Audi at the factory....the 'trainer-lady' spent several minutes talking about the button (it's overhead and has a covering over it).  

After the whole presentation....I sat there and thought....in 99.9-percent of accidents....this is not necessary.  In fact, you'd have to be in some fairly remote region....driving off a cliff....for this mechanism to make sense.

So, back to Ford.

Since 2018, For was required to put the mechanism on their cars.  Ford didn't own any patents on the system.  The radio chips put on the Ford cars to fulfill the EU regulation?  Well....they didn't pay any license fee from the companies that developed/patented the systems.

Ford got dragged into German court.  Court finally said this week....'enough'....you need to work a deal up to make the people suing happy, or we halt your production.

There's even text in the court order....that things could get nasty, with cars being seized at dealerships.

What it'll cost here?  The numbers suggest 200-plus million Euro.  

All of this over a mechanism that is marginally of value?  This is the curious part of the story.  

To this date, I can't find any data to say in Germany....that someone has activated the button.