German companies collaborate on electronic vehicle identification

German internet of things (IoT) provider Kathrein has agreed a global collaboration on electronic vehicle identification with Tönnjes EAST, a German licence plate manufacturer. Both companies have been working together on the development of new technologies using Kathrein’s expertise in RFID technology combined with Tönnjes EAST’s experience in the integration of transponders into vehicle licence plates or windscreens. Their joint portfolio includes Kathrein’s latest RFID reader, the RRU4500, which h
September 13, 2017 Read time: 2 mins
German internet of things (IoT) provider Kathrein has agreed a global collaboration on electronic vehicle identification with Tönnjes EAST, a German licence plate manufacturer.


Both companies have been working together on the development of new technologies using Kathrein’s expertise in RFID technology combined with Tönnjes EAST’s experience in the integration of transponders into vehicle licence plates or windscreens.

Their joint portfolio includes Kathrein’s latest RFID reader, the RRU4500, which has a read range of up to 20 metres and enables the reliable identification of vehicles in free-flow motorway traffic up to a maximum speed of 250 km/h.

Tönnjes uses RFID technology in two systems, the IDePLATE, a vehicle licence plate with an integrated RFID chip and the IDeSTIX, a windscreen sticker containing a data chip with an encrypted ID number.

In order to ensure the IT security of the transponder data, the two companies use UCODE DNA, the latest generation of high security transponders from NXP Semiconductors. The decryption takes place directly between the transponders and the Kathrein readers. These are a new kind of combined RFID reader-writer and IoT gateway, which means that the data can be loaded directly into a Cloud and used from there.

The partners offer a turn-key solution, which includes implementing the technology on motorways, in low emission zones and toll roads, as well as establishing and operating central database solutions for authorities and providers.

Networking & Communication Systems

Related Content

  • May 9, 2019
    ERM and Altair to develop low-power IoT solutions
    Israel-based ERM Telematics has partnered with Altair Semiconductor to develop a range of low-powered and installation-free automotive Internet of Things (IoT) solutions. ERM says its new set of IoT and asset management solutions utilise Altair’s optimised cellular IoT chipsets to provide installation-free solutions for IoT, asset management, stolen vehicle recovery and financial services. These will include event-based platforms for automatic vehicle location and asset management applications using vari
    Read More
  • January 15, 2025
    Star Systems International acquires V Track ID
    Tolling tech specialist has bought data gathering company 'to prepare for future'
    Read More
  • July 30, 2013
    Geotoll’s payment app could be the smart answer to tolling interoperability
    Jon Masters looks at a smartphone app which could be the ‘disruptive technology’ that eases the way to interoperability in tolling systems. Consumer demand may soon drive the biggest step change yet in tolling. In the United States a new start-up company, Geotoll, has launched a smartphone app for electronic toll payment. It is not beyond possibility that rapid growth of the market for smartphones will continue – an estimated 50% of US citizens and 80% of Europeans now have one – and that the Geotoll brand
    Read More
  • June 17, 2016
    Joining old and new in Canada’s Highway 407
    David Arminas visits Canada’s Highway 407 ETR to see how the concession is working and hear about new arrangements for the roadway’s extension. The Toronto region is North America’s eighth largest metropolitan area and its roads become notoriously congested. In 1997 Highway 407, a 68km concrete toll motorway which skirts the northern edge of Toronto, was opened and initially operated by the province and CHIC - a consortium of four leading Ontario-based companies. Finance came from the Ontario Financing Auth
    Read More

Highlighted Content