Amos Tamam pioneered a useful taxi technology

It happens to all of us.

You're visiting a big city and need to grab a taxi, but you realize immediately after you've victoriously hailed a signature yellow cab that you aren't carrying any cash. With the invention of plastic, the number of people who carry cash has steadily dwindled. Plus, a pocket full of paper is much more successfully picked than a pocket full of plastic.

Thanks to Amos Tamam, an import from Tel Aviv University, visitors to Philadelphia and New York City have one less reason to carry cash. Using his skills as an electrical engineer, Amos Tamam developed wireless technology that allows cab drivers to take credit cards as payment.

Looking at the usefulness of this technology from the perspective of the cab drivers, they will likely have less cash onboard to tempt would-be robbers.

Although Amos Tamam's wireless credit-card technology is now available only to fleets in New York City and Philadelphia, he is in negotiations to bring the system to fleets in other major cities around the U.S.