RFID Is Key To Car Clubs' Success
Featuring Susan Shaheen, research director, Transportation Sustainability Research Center at the University of California, Berkeley

Used with permission from RFID Journal, Inc.

To open the door of a reserved car, a member holds the RFID card or fob up to a small dashboard-mounted computer containing an RFID reader. The interrogator collects the member's ID, encoded to the RFID tag inside the card or fob, by reading it through the car's windshield. The computer then transmits the number, via a cellular phone network, to a reservations system on a server maintained by the car-sharing company. If the system shows that the member has reserved that car, the computer unlocks the doors.

WhizzGo, a U.K.-based car-share provider, turned to German firm Invers to establish its caraccess system in 2004. Invers is the largest provider of RFID-based car-access systems used by car-sharing companies, according to Dave Brook, a car-sharing consultant based in Portland, Ore., and author of the Carsharing.US blog. The company embeds a passive 125 kHz Hitag RFID inlay, manufactured by NXP Semiconductors, in each card. The inlay is interrogated by the Invers dashboard-mounted computer, which also controls a lock on the glove box, where WhizzGo drivers secure the car keys. The ignition system is linked with the glove compartment's lock, and the car cannot be started unless the compartment has been properly opened.