Texas Instruments — Radio Frequency Identification Systems
Auto Dealership Accelerates Sales With RFID
Performance Analytics, Inc. (PAI), a privately-held company based in Palo Alto, CA, developed its electronic lockbox, KeyWhere™, to provide auto dealerships across the country a more streamlined and effective sales tracking and accountability system. KeyWhere was developed when several large dealerships approached PAI about creating a key-tracking solution that would simplify vehicle access for test drives and boost security to deter theft.
KeyWhere provides quick and easy access to vehicles during the sales process. Each car is outfitted with a lockbox that holds the ignition key and key fob. To access the key, the sales representative swipes a personal RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) card and enters a PIN on the lockbox’s keypad. KeyWhere successfully merges new and proven technologies — wireless communication, solar charging circuits with integrated battery systems, RFID, Web-based applications software, and DMS interfaces — into a unique, practical hardware and software solution.
Until February 2006, The Bob Lewis Automotive Family dealership, based in San Jose, CA, had relied on a traditional manual system that required salespeople to retrieve car keys from a main office or from lockboxes throughout the car lot. Often, potential buyers were left waiting for an unacceptable amount of time, and there was no way for the dealership to track which salesperson took what vehicle and when. The inconvenience and delay caused by retrieving keys from remote locations decreased sales by 10%. Enabled with RFID and ZigBee wireless technologies, KeyWhere’s speed and convenience helps salespeople at the auto dealership increase the number of test drives, boost sales, and improve inventory tracking and turnover.
PAI turned to Texas Instruments (TI) for RFID readers and transponders, and enlisted Firetide, a privately-held technology company based in Los Gatos, CA, for a wireless mesh network to connect data from the boxes to the KeyWhere Web-based management system. Each lockbox, large enough to hold a vehicle’s ignition key and key fob, is equipped with a 16-bit processor and RFID reader/antenna. The key is attached to a plastic 1-inch-by-2-inch electronic key tag that contains TI’s Tag-it™ passive 13.56 MHz RFID tag, compliant with the ISO/IEC 15693 standard. Salespeople gain access to each lockbox attached to the cars’ windows through a plastic card embedded with a similar TI 13.56 MHz RFID tag encoded with a personal identification number.
Product Description
Texas Instruments (TI) offers several different RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) technology platforms and a wide variety of TI-RFid™ tags and readers. Platforms include: low frequency (134.2 kHz), high frequency (13.56 MHz), and ultra-high frequency (860 – 960 MHz). Tag products are battery-free, can be read only or read/write, have choices in security features, and include a range of memory sizes.
Company Overview
Texas Instruments Radio Frequency Identification Systems is an industry leader in RFID technology and the world’s largest integrated manufacturer of TI-RFid™ tags, TI-RFid smart labels, and TI-RFid reader systems.
With 500 million tags manufactured, TI-RFid technology is used in a broad range of RFID applications worldwide, including asset tracking, automotive, contactless payment systems, e-documentation, secure identification, ticketing and laundry, library, livestock, pharmaceutical and medical, and retail supply chain management.
TI is an active member of many standards bodies, including EPCglobal, ISO/IEC, ECMA International, ETSI, and several national standardization bodies working to drive the adoption of global standards for RFID technology. Visit www.ti.com/rfid for more information.
Texas Instruments —
Radio Frequency Identification Systems
6550 Chase Oaks Blvd., MS 8470
Plano, TX 75023
PH: (800) 962-RFID [7343]
E-mail: rfidsupport@ti.com
Web site: www.ti-rfid.com/atguide