By Chuck Martin
Wells Fargo Bank has been granted a patent for using a self-driving car to take potential home buyers to see houses for sale.
The patent, “Property Hunting in an Autonomous Vehicle,” describes how an autonomous vehicle would display houses for sale on a screen in the car, identify routes from the current geolocation of the vehicle to the houses selected and automatically drive to the first house on the route.
The vehicle also would determine the optimized route to the next home after the first one is seen.
Houses displayed would be those that the person in the vehicle is prequalified to purchase.
Along the way, the autonomous vehicle would display various pieces of information, such as schools in the neighborhood being passed through, crime statistics, transportation in the neighborhood and shopping in the area.
When the potential house buyer arrives at the first house, they could get out of the car to investigate it. “When the customer returns to the AV (autonomous vehicle), the customer can use a command to resume the AV on the optimal route,” states the patent. “The AV then can be directed to a second house on the optimal route.”
The potential buyer would be “permitted to make offer for the first house from the display screen on the AV,” states the patent. “For example, when the individual is prequalified for the first house, when the individual clicks on the first house, a dialog box can be displayed from which the individual can enter an offer price for the first house.”
