Say goodbye to this eyesore…

Self parking is nothing new, luxury leaders such as Lexus and Mercedes have been working on these “parallel parking” designs for sometime now. But what is new, thanks to a breakthrough from the Volkswagen Self Parking Vision system, is self parking has now taken on a perpendicular role.

This means that with several cameras placed around a vehicle, followed by a current GPS unit, a driver could conceivably pull up to a restaurant, get out, push a button and the car will go and search out a spot in a parking garage, park itself, lock the doors, turn on its own alarm, then await its master to summon it to come back and pick him or her up.

While we are many years away from this arrangement, we are only a couple away from cars that will flawlessly park themselves in any situation, parallel or perpendicular, without the necessity for any driver involvement in the process.

Several years ago it was exciting that we could actually push a button to lock and unlock our doors, then we were able to push a button and start our car while drinking warm cocoa from our kitchen counter in the middle of winter. Today, Volkswagen is close to a breakthrough design of another button on our remotes that will tell the car to park itself in a designated spot we have chosen.

Using a high tech computer guidance system and ultrasound sensors and cameras in the side mirrors, the vehicle will guide and “self-correct” into a parking space (meaning if it starts at too drastic an angle it will pull forward and realign), shut off the engine, lock the doors, and all this is happening while the passengers are already headed to where they were going.

This would greatly reduce the number of small parking lot fender benders, and of course ensure that nobody in the History of the world will ever be able to parallel park again. We could also expect parking lots to reduce the spaces necessary in between each car, since we will no longer need to actually exit the vehicle once it is parked.

There you have it, two birds with one stone… now if we can just keep computers from devising a plot to take over the world, we would have it made!

The New York Police Department is telling victims of identity theft to keep their stolen credit cards open and active. From a financial advisor’s point of view, this would sound like the worst possible advice. However, from a detective’s perspective, it becomes much easier to track down the thief.

As might be expected, the plan is meeting with some resistance, according to the New York Daily News:

“‘Nobody trusts credit card companies or banks, so no one really believes they won’t be on the hook for some crook’s spending spree,’ said a Manhattan lieutenant familiar with (NYPD Deputy Commissioner of Operations Phil) Pulaski’s push to reduce grand larcenies.”

NYPD officials are saying they will attempt to work with credit card companies to gain a commitment for the companies to pick up the tab. It’s an “investment,” they say, well worthwhile in light of catching a thief run amuck. However, there is a mixed reaction in the credit card world as well. Visa, MasterCard and American Express stated that a consumer would never be expected to foot the bill for a criminal’s spending spree, even if the card was left open under the advice of law enforcement. However, Capital One spokesperson Diana Don had the following to say:

“We might be responsible for the expenses. We want to work with law enforcement to stop such thefts. It would be on a case-by-case review.”

This story still doesn’t answer the common complaint of law enforcement officials — jurisdiction. Might we assume that the feds would get involved in this effort as well? By many accounts, credit card fraud and identity theft often becomes an international issue, so that may be necessary. At any rate, it’s nice to see law enforcement officials trying to take a solution-oriented approach, even if it is still in the idea stage.

Virtual credit cards are certainly nothing new in the world of online shopping. After all, they’ve been around almost seven years, but they may not have received due attention in the past. Also known as substitute credit card numbers or controlled payment numbers, this technology offers online shoppers a free and highly effective layer of protection against identity theft.

According to the Sound Money Tips blog, MBNA, Citibank, Discover and Paypal all offer this free service to customers. All you have to do is sign up, download the software, and enter your credit card info (viewable only to the customer and the bank).

Some services limit spending to one merchant or venue only. Other services do not place restrictions on spending, but do generate a different “temporary number” with each online purchase. This temporary number is the only thing hackers can see, whether they eavesdrop at the point of purchase or hack into merchant records after the fact.

Many consumers have snubbed virtual credit cards because they are viewed as unnecessary in light of the fact that credit card companies generally do not hold customers liable for fraudulent purchases. However, the bigger picture is that online credit card fraud can turn into a bigger case of grand-scale identity theft, from which it takes a lot of time and money to recover. And who really wants to deal with that?