Ford will turn your voice into unique, 3D-printed locking wheel nuts

In an effort to stop people stealing rims while also showing off its 3D-printing abilities, Ford’s engineers have developed unique locking wheel nuts. The nuts and key are custom 3D-printed and the individualized, circular pattern can be modeled on a person’s voice, another snippet of audio, a favorite logo, or just about anything else you can turn into a round pattern.

Ford’s making the nuts in partnership with 3D-printing company EOS. Once the audio clip or pattern is chosen, the nut and key are designed and printed as a single piece using stainless steel that’s acid-and-corrosion resistant.

Difficult to clone — Ford says the nuts include an additional level of security to prevent the lock pattern from being cloned or copied. The design includes “unevenly spaced ribs inside the nut and indentations that widen the deeper they go to prevent a thief from making a wax imprint of the pattern, as the wax breaks when it is pulled from the nut.”

You can’t have them yet, though — There’s no word on when Ford owners will be able to order the custom nuts, what they’ll cost, or how easy it’ll be to get a replacement key if you lose yours. But at least that gives us time to think of our preferred phrase. Perhaps, “Pop, lock ’n roll,” or “Take that, Toyota”?