Passport for cars

Passports for cars

At present, license plates can be easily misappropriated for dishonest purposes. Modernizing the system will reduce crime as well as provide many other benefits

Words | Annamarie Neumair, Denkbar PR & marketing for Tönnjes E.A.S.T, Germany

There are more than a billion cars in the world – and the number is growing. It doesn’t matter whether it’s passenger or freight transport, urban traffic and public highways put official agencies and government to the test with ever-increasing challenges in traffic and vehicle management. Simultaneously, they are also assigned the task of registering automobiles reliably and efficiently. These are the problems that the German company Tönnjes E.A.S.T. has solved with its revolutionary invention, the IDePlate.

A passport for the car

“It is a license plate with an integrated RFID chip so that the car has a unique number that can be called off electronically – like a passport for cars,” says Dietmar Mönning, the managing director of Tönnjes E.A.S.T.

The areas where IDePlates are used depend upon infrastructure and political specifications. In some jurisdictions there is a high number of vehicles without registration; others apply obsolete technologies. Germany, for instance, only uses the visual characteristics of the license plate to identify them, which is very inefficient and prone to abuse.

Looks can be deceiving

At first glance, the IDePlate looks just like any license plate, but its built-in RFID chip contains a one-off encoded identification number, making it the electronic counterpart to the visible characters of the license plate. But that’s not all: another component is the IDeStix windshield sticker. The holographic sticker also has an RFID chip with a one-off encoded identification number, so that both encoded numbers can only be decoded with authorized reading equipment – and should one of the elements go missing, the system will trigger an alarm.

NXP Semiconductors, an expert in secure connectivity solutions for embedded applications, produces the integrated RFID chip. The UCode DNA chip used links a read range of over 15m (49ft) with high-security encryption. Mönning says, “In the past, technicians were forced to decide between protecting data or being able to read from a distance. Happily, IDePlate and IDeStix can do both.

“Additionally, the identification and verification is done by Kathrein, the largest manufacturer of antennas in the world offering a groundbreaking link between RFID writing/reading equipment and what is known as the IoT gateway by uploading the data onto the cloud.”

Along with the IDePlate and IDeStix,

Above: The IDePlate with the

IDeStix provide a vehicle with its own unique passport details

Tönnjes E.A.S.T. can provide organizational assistance to official agencies. In Kenya, the company worked with local enforcement offices on the creation of a central database of vehicle and vehicle owners, with the intention that all vehicles will be equipped with an RFID windshield sticker by 2020. The technology is also used in Honduras, Latvia, Saudi Arabia and the Cayman Islands. “We can produce IDePlates that will meet the requirements of the local standard for any country. And, since some of our products are manufactured locally, this also creates jobs in these areas,” adds Mönning.

The windscreen stickers, printed and encoded in Kenya, include a QR code, so with a smartphone can be scanned to verify the most important car features such as the license plate, color, brand or model via an app or the secure website of the National Transport and Safety Authority. This is useful when buying a second-hand car, especially in countries where there is an active black market.

Significant amounts of money forfeited

The IDePlate can bring benefits concerning vehicle identification and inspection, traffic management, automatic toll systems, speed measurements and border/access control. It also protects against license plate cloning and petrol theft. Private land owners, commercial grounds, and locations with special security requirements such as airports can also utilize the IDePlate system to improve organization and security. Many airports have an issue with illegal taxis that want to transport passengers after arrival, but do not meet any security standards and lower the income of legal taxi drivers. The RFID license plate could swiftly ensure that only official personnel would have access.

States lose considerable income at speed checks because many still employ the visual recording method with blitzers. However, more than half of the plate images on the radar trap that are supposed to make records cannot be read in inclement weather or limited visibility. A field test in concert with the Dutch Ministry of Defence showed that the IDePlate system records 100% of passenger cars – even if the license plates are dirty and visibility is bad. This excellent level of read rate is also due to the technology of the reading equipment used by Tönnjes E.A.S.T. that comes in mobile or stationary forms. That means that police can make checks even when the vehicle is moving – saving officials time. Border controls would also benefit from this development because cars that are searched or have cloned license plates could easily be discovered. Any country that wants to take a step in the direction of greater security and a more efficient future now has the means to do so. n

Above: The IDePlate technology

provides benefits for restricting vehicle access on private land

Below: Besides its RFID

chip, the IDeStix can also be printed with a QR code that enables smartphone users to access vehicle information on their device