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Although QR Codes were designed to track automotive manufacturing parts, QR Codes have bloomed as a tool for more than just tracking in the present day.
Smartphones have popularized the usage of QR Codes for nearly most use-cases: advertising, banners, and even social media.
“To adopt the change, companies in the auto and electronic industries had to manage a large variety of parts and were required to store more information on one product in their system. That caused a decline in the efficiency at factories, as workers had to scan barcodes more frequently, which was difficult and fatiguing,” says Masahiro Hara, co-creator of the QR Code.
Popular car manufacturers such as Cadillac, GM Motors, and Mercedes have adopted QR Codes for more than just tracking. What are the other use-cases of QR Codes in the automobile industry?
7 use-cases of QR Codes in the automobile industry
#1 Vehicle identification and registration
According to Hedges & Company, there are about 283.3 million registered vehicles in the US alone. Also, cops pull over about 20 million drivers across the country each year, according to researchers.
Stopping vehicle drivers to check their registration is not only tedious but also leads to massive human errors.
The Union Government has adopted QR Codes for vehicle registration in India – smart card with QR Codes and NFC for driving licenses and vehicle registration certificates (RCs) across all states and union territories.
According to government officials, the move was to help digitize the process to combat forgery and duplication of documents.
A driver has to just download their respective QR Code in their smartphones containing their registration repository and pull it up to show the police to confirm their identity and vehicle registration.
QR Codes for vehicle registration not only helps police officers and the drivers save time, but the automation can also help the officials combat automotive crimes.
#2 Identification of car components
In an automobile manufacturing company, the identification of car components accurately is paramount.
Each part of the vehicle has specific dimensions, working functionality, and fitting. When done manually, there can be high chances of errors, thus accounting for hefty damages.
To avoid such errors, QR Codes can be used to track and identify car components in the automotive industry accurately. QR Codes can be embedded in the authorized user’s vehicle components with its respective data during the manufacturing process.
During the assembly process, employees can simply scan the QR Code, pull up its information, and assemble them in their respective destinations without any error.
Besides, according to the FBI, 721,885 vehicles were stolen in 2019, accounting for almost $6.4 billion in losses to motor vehicle theft. Integrating QR Codes on automobiles and its parts can also help authorities trace the vehicle by analyzing its engine and chassis number to track the theft.
#3 Unlock rental vehicles with a single scan
The traditional method of preparing a rental agreement, requires physical documentation, and, overall, is tedious. QR Codes for rental vehicles have solved this problem.
Several companies such as Uber’s Lime and JUMP, ZoomCar’s PEDL, and Hellobike’s Ofo and Mobike have implemented QR Codes on their bikes to unlock, ride, and park it safely at their respective dockless stations – all with a simple scan.
To unlock a bike, merely scan the QR Code on the bike, pay on the app, and enjoy the ride.
Embedding QR Codes on bikes also eliminates the need to carry keys to start the vehicle. Anyone with the bike app can scan the QR Code, unlock the bike, and use it without worrying about physical keys.
#4 Ensure passenger safety
Passenger safety is of the utmost importance to any automobile manufacturer. Ensuring passenger safety during a crash is the primary concern of any rescuer team.
In 2019, Toyota announced a recall in collaboration with the Carma Project concerning their Takata airbag defect. To remedy this problem, Toyota announced that up to 70 million vehicles were recalled for defective Takata airbags.
For vehicle owners to learn about this information, all they had to do was scan a QR Code in their vehicle, and they would be notified if they have been affected by the recall or not.
Not just that, Mercedes added QR Codes to their cars that were designed to help firefighters and paramedics to get critical information needed to save car victims. The QR Code directed the user to a web page displaying how to cut each vehicle’s type to free its passengers.
A QR Code embedded on a vehicle can help users retrieve information such as country of origin, safety measures, troubleshooting, and even car parts to stay abreast of product updates and model recalls.
#5 Activate vehicle insurance policy
All vehicles come with insurance policies. These insurance policies typically contain a file of papers that can be difficult to store, maintain, and renew.
Several government agencies like India, Jamaica, and the US have announced digitizing physical insurance policies by embedding QR Codes.
The Insurance Regulatory and Development Authority of India (IRDAI) stated that “All motor policies issued on or after 1st of December, 2015 shall essentially contain a Quick Response Code. This QR Code would be used to verify the authenticity of the electronic policy.”
QR Codes on insurance policies can help officials, including traffic police, verify the policy’s authenticity by confirming it with their database.
In addition, they can also redirect the QR Code to their renewal website for easy renewal without going through agents. The same website can also provide them with all the information one needs about vehicle insurance policies to fasten the process.
Create bulk QR Codes for your insurance agency to save time and maximize efficiency to renew, update, or check users’ policies within no time.
You can also use a PDF QR Code generator for paperless and contactless insurance.
#6 Voice assistants for cars
The evolution of smart voice assistants such as Siri, Alexa, and Google Assistant has been enormous. According to statistics. 72% of US consumers are engaging with voice search through digital assistants.
Tech-savvy vehicle owners prefer voice-activation software to control a multitude of features even in cars for safe, mobile-free access to voice assistants.
Cadillac has welcomed the idea of integrating Amazon Alexa that can benefit the vehicle owner with several benefits – to make phone calls, change the music, get directions to a place, or even open the garage door, all via simple voice commands.
To activate Alexa, the user has to simply link their Cadillac Connected Service plan with their Amazon account and scan the QR Code displayed on their Cadillac infotainment system to start the voice assistant.
#7 Track inventory
QR Codes were practically invented for Toyota to keep track of automotive parts’ inventory back in 1994 by Denso Wave Corporation. QR Codes were developed to overcome the limitations of 2D barcodes since it can store more information, be scanned, and sustain up to 30% damage resistance.
With the aid of QR Codes for inventory systems, automobile manufacturers can monitor their inventory levels, track manufacturing processes, build assemblies according to materials, and even collect real-time data all with one scan.
Automobile warehouse employees can simply use their smartphones or tablets to scan QR Codes, track the manufacturing processes, and even fill forms through various stages to maximize efficiency.
READ: A detailed guide on how to create a trackable QR Code.
How to create QR Codes for your automobile manufacturing company?
To create a QR Code for your automobile manufacturing company, go to the QR Code API generator page –
- Sign up for the free API trial on Uniqode
- Get the developer token (API key)
- Enter the particulars and create the QR Code to be in line with the brand
- Test and download the QR Code
QR Codes in the automobile industry: Say yes to automated processes!
With major players such as Mercedes, Cadillac, and GM Motors, including QR Codes for use-cases more than just tracking auto parts, it is safe to say that QR Codes have far more benefits than plain barcodes in the automotive industry.
An augmented reality start-up called XtendR, which intends to reimagine customer experience by merging QR Codes with augmented reality has come up with a custom-designed customer experience exclusively for cars in conjunction with AI.
Using this technology, any automobile company can deploy lifelike models of cars to its customers virtually anywhere with QR Codes.
“To get a real model, you know, you’re creating a car that is being launched, you’re creating a 3D of that, which would kind of drive into your living area, you can look around it. So, the chances of going wrong are very little on that. And that is something which is considered by many people,” Anurag Sachdeva, co-founder of XtendR explained.
Thereby, QR Codes have come a long way from tracking automobile parts to supplying augmented reality to users to offer a better user experience.
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