Is the RFID windshield tag the future of parking?

The RFID windshield tag is a 0.5” x 4” adhesive microchip which is attached to the corner of your windshield. The idea is that when you enter a car park, the detector on the entrance reads the 12 digit code from the tag and times how long you spend in the car park. It then bills you accordingly. There is no personal information stored on the chip, all your information will be stored on a central database which would most likely be accessed online (much like London’s oyster card system).

The system (called VIATAG) was developed by Fraunhofer Institute for Material Flow and Logistics for a company called MotionID, based in Munich. The chip doesn’t even require a battery as it draws energy from the electromagnetic field of the reader device and can work of a distance of up to 8 meters. The chip is rendered useless if removed, for security reasons.

If this idea was universally accepted it could be a great time saver and save the car park operators as well as the customers’ time and money. The system would be cheaper to run than any existing systems and could be used in parallel with an existing system (for users without the tag).

The VIATAG system has been trialled and tested in several car parks in Munich, Essen and Duisburg. MotionID technologies hope to start using the technology in the next few weeks.