It was a surprise, this morning, to read in the NY Times about a new technology to assist repo men (and women). Surprising, because there is another technology that may be much more useful.The technology described in the Times photographs license plates and matches plates against a database of vehicles with payments past due. It's interesting and works, but there is another way.
A car dealer can now place a device that is essentially a GPS receiver and cell phone in the vehicle when it's sold. With that installed, the car can be tracked and its location known at any time (well, as long as it's in an area with cell phone coverage and receiving GPS signals). The device can do more than send data to someone interested in the vehicle's location.
The device can receive data: It can be programmed to send an alarm if the vehicle travels outside an area, for example. It's even possible to send the device a message that will prevent the car from being restarted.
An attractive thing about the technology is that the cost of installing the device and monitoring the buyer's use of the vehicle can be passed on to the buyer. The technology is especially interesting to dealers who have had to resort to financing vehicle purchases themselves rather than selling their purchase contracts to banks, which became difficult to do when the credit cruch hit.
Both technologies exist to find out where an interesting vehicle is. The one described by the Times may not be the most effective.
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