Sharing a Mini Cooper convertible at LinuxWorld or Cool IT Tricks you can do with RFID tags

SAN FRANCISCO -- As an IT journalist, I travel periodically around the country, going to IT conferences in a wide variety of cities to bring interesting stories to the readers of Computerworld.

I'm not yet like Johnny Cash and his classic song,"I've Been Everywhere," but I do get around.

And whenever I have to rent a car for a conference, I usually get one from Avis Rent-A-Car, where I have always had great experiences and been a very satisfied customer. In most big cities, though, I always use public transportation and avoid car rentals. I see no sense in paying for hotel parking at rates that are often as high as the car rental itself.

But on my trip last week to the LinuxWorld Conference & Expo in San Francisco, I broke my "no big city rental car" mantra to get a look at what I think is a potential game-changer for many IT travelers.

For one day, I hit the streets of San Francisco in a red Mini Cooper convertible to try out the City CarShare approach to car rentals.

City CarShare, and competitors like Zipcar, have been around for several years, allow residents in large cities like New York, Philadelphia, Boston, San Francisco and others to join and rent a vehicle by the hour or by the day. What makes them different than traditional car rental agencies is that the vehicles are parked in neighborhoods around the city for easy pick-up, and they are available for just the amount of time that you need one. Many different kinds of vehicles are availble for use.

The fleets even use some cool technology to make the program work. In each car is a Radio Frequency Identification (RFID) pad that works with an RFID fob registered to each renter so you can log in, get your car, use it and then return it with all of the relevant rental information transmitted automatically for billing purposes. Renters are charged hourly fees depending on the vehicles they drive, as well as mileage charges that include fuel, insurance and other services. The groups also have monthly membership fees and security deposits for account holders.

But while the RFID technology isn't new for the car fleets, a cool new service could be somewhere in the future -- City CarShare is continuing to look at ways that would allow you to be a member in one city and easily take out one of their cars in another city withouot having to do more than make an online reservation. Presently, if you want to do that, you have to call ahead and make special arrangements.

To me, this would be a must-have for IT travelers -- the ability to get a quality, cheap and easy-to-locate rental car that you wouldn't have to park at your hotel. You could use it for work, then park it in it's designated neighborhood parking space, without the expense of parking.

I don't have the luxury yet of having a City CarShare program where I live in Lancaster, Penna., so I had to register my name, address, driving record and other related information to get an account. That got me a small, gray RFID fob that connects to a keychain, and a reservation was made for a car.

To see the city right, I selected the Mini convertible, which I found parked in the public parking garage across from the Moscone Center, where LinuxWorld was held.

Once at the car, I placed my RFID fob against the sensor on the driver's side front window of the car, and like magic, waited a few seconds while the car logged me in and unlocked its doors.

Inside, the ignition key is on a lanyard connected to the dashboard so you can't forget and take it with you. There are detailed instruction cards in the glovebox, as well as the car's owner's manual, which came in handy.

Once I started the car up and adjusted the mirrors, I immediately tried to open the electrically-operated convertible top, but it would only open the sunroof. Checking in the manual, my traveling companion and I discovered that the previous renter had unlatched some internal latches to fit a large item in the car, but had neglected to re-latch the fasteners, which prevented the top from opening fully. Once latched, the top opened as designed.

Driving the car was like driving any rental vehicle, until you park it. That's when you get a strange feeling as you shut it off and leave the ignition key inside -- which goes against all of your normal car-driving instincts. You then lock the car with your RFID fob by placing it on the windshield sensor, which closes the locks automatically. You know this is how the system works, but it just feels so unnatural to leave the key in the car.

Also inside the car in special visor-mounted pockets are an electronic card for the garage parking gate and a gas card if you need to fill up on your journey.

I took the red Mini around the city, up and down the twisty Lombard Street tourist area, through Chinatown for lunch, down the steepest block in the city on Filbert Street with its 31.5% grade, out across the spectacular Golden Gate Bridge, then on to Sausalito and it's quaint marina.

The whole time I drove the car, I kept thinking that this is a great tool for the harried IT traveler. You get a car for just the time you need it, usually in a location that is convenient to your hotel. And through the magic of RFID tags, there are no long customer service lines to wait in at a car rental counter.

Driving the Mini was fun, and I swear, foreign tourists thought the car was a tourist attraction, snapping photos of the little "Mini cabrio!" that I overheard them announcing to each other as I drove past.

The only downside -- whereas Avis and other car rental companies clean their cars out between rentals, or at least try to -- the interior of this Mini was pretty dirty. City CarShare says they try to clean the cars once a week inside, but I'm not sure that goal was being met in this car.

No, this won't make your IT systems work better, it won't back up your business critical data and it won't solve your bandwidth problems, but if it makes your next IT business trip a little easier and more pleasant, then I hope it was worth reading about.

Well, that's enough for today. I'm a bit emotional now.

Sadly, "I left my Mini in San Francisco."

With apologies to Tony Bennett.