Robotic Nation Evidence

Devices can halt cars with tardy payments: "Most of the credit-damaged customers at North Texas Motorcars learn to live with the lights.
They're attached to a black box on the dashboard and start flashing on the first day a car payment is late. On the fourth day, after two more days of warning lights, the car won't start.

'I would not undertake buy-here/pay-here without this system,' said Ray Williamson, president of North Texas Motorcars, which sells about 50 vehicles a month and installs boxes in each of them. 'There's just too much risk.'

The box - called a starter interrupt unit - is used mostly at used-car dealerships that provide financing to customers with bad credit. But other segments of the auto industry may adopt it, particularly if consumers' credit ratings continue to decline. "