RFID tags are perhaps the easiest way to initiate fast charging for most electrical drivers today, in anticipation of card payments, delivery and shipping technology, or the like. If the chip is connected to your user profile with the charging provider, you can just hold the chip against a specific field at the charging station to verify yourself.
Does this mean you can use the RFID based access card you already have, or buy any charging sim from your local electronics store and register with all the operators? We are testing.
From our office in Grensen in Oslo, we walk a few meters to Kjells and buy a set of RFID cards.
The chips are registered with the applications of freight operators using the hexadecimal code. In some parts, the code is written outside, but this is not the case in our case. With a colleague’s Android phone and the NFC Tools app, we can still read the code.
Six out of ten waste
Here is the result of the registration attempts:
Four of the ten operators we examined allow you to register RFID tags from anywhere, as long as they contain a code in hexadecimal format. This means that you can also use other chips, such as access cards or the like.
We did this
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RFID technology is everywhere – in bank cards, access cards, and passports, among other things.
- We bought a Linocell RFID/NFC Mifare 4-pk chip.
- These tags are based on the ISO/IEC 14443 standard, which discusses how to design contactless identification tags. It is identified by the Hexa code, which is necessary for chip registration with charging operators.
- The icon isn’t on the outside of the chip, so we’re reading it with an Android phone (you can’t use Apple’s iOS phones) and the NFC Tools app. Then we tried to register the code in the chargers apps.
– There’s a jungle of pieces there, so we see it’s customer friendly that customers can have Slice across shipping suppliers, says Odd Olaf Askeland, head of express shipping at Eviny.
He says some customers prefer shipping with RFID tags.
Six of the players, including the main players Fortum and Mer, do not allow our attempts to score the shipping chip from Kjells.
We want to control the chips used in our shipping network, says Nikolai Jorgensen, Mer general manager.
We must look at safety measures
Jørgensen says they can prevent duplicates from being registered in the system by getting an overview. At the same time, the client has to say if someone should be able to clone a chip, since the system will not detect it.
There is no central registry for RFID tags, and with the right equipment it will be easy to clone a tag so you can ship with other users.
Jørgensen says they have no experience cloning anyone of one of their RFID cards. At the same time, he says, he has now asked Mer’s IT department if they can increase the security of the chips.
Jørgensen says they have also set quality requirements for the RFID tags used, for example that they must have sufficient electromagnetic field range to ensure the best possible functionality.
Koples Joar Brunes stresses that they want to control which pieces are taped.
– We have set the quality requirements for the chip, says the general manager of Kople.
Defends the open system
Circle K and Eviny defend their decision to have an open system where all blocks can be scored.
Copying a charging sim is not an easy task. If you’re going to do that, there are small values you can cheat on. Customer can see this happen and block the charging chip. Then the problem is resolved, says Lars Keitel Bjorna, acting director of general shipping at Circle K.
Askeland in Eviny says they haven’t yet tested that customers have cloned their charging chip. He thinks it’s a problem, but there is a relatively small possibility of fraud and a limited possibility of loss, as one might have to use it to charge fees and thus expose the fraudster. Synchronized:
We caution a little about charging with a chip, and say that charging via the app is safer. But we see that people are satisfied with charging with a charging strip, and we haven’t had problems with fraud so far, he says.
Many interfaces and applications
Anders Granquist, Defa’s director of business development, says they’ve chosen to open the Cloudcharge system so customers don’t have to walk around with a bunch of RFID-tagged keys. They do not face the security aspect as an issue, as customers can manage their accounts themselves.
At the same time, he says, they’re a slightly different kind of charging solution provider, in that they provide an operating platform for everyone who sets up charging systems. Therefore, they do not have to tie up end customers themselves to sell other things like electricity, hamburgers or chips at charging stations.
– Other freight operators have to answer themselves why they choose to make it so complicated. We care about making it easier for electric drivers, because there will be a lot of interfaces and applications. Granquist says many are trying to solve it by creating another app, which is also a bit weird.
He thinks it’s strange that it can be so difficult to pay the fee, as Norway might be one of the countries in the world that came far farthest in payment solutions.
– It’s not the technical thing about it. Granquist believes that players may have the desire to own the interface with the end customers.
conclusion
Different practices on different players mean that it is not possible to make any chip the only payment controller at charging stations. Freight operators usually offer customers their own chips, but they cannot be registered with competing players who have a closed system.
The closest we have come to the dream of getting a single SIM for all operators is to get a chip from one of the operator partners.
Partners offer chips that can be registered with the vast majority of operators. So they present this as a benefit to the customer to solve the problem that has been created.
In practice, this is done by partners who send lists with numbers on RFID tags that shipping operators pre-approved via approved lists. All other pieces are rejected.
Here you can read more around it.
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