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RFID chips with burgers new for McDonalds menu
Drive-thru users to pay with chipped card and burger off

By Jo Best

Published: Thursday 19 August 2004

Fast-food junkies visiting McDonalds drive-thrus will soon no longer have the choice if they want chips with their orders: the burger behemoth is trialling RFID-chipped cards as a means of payment.

The technology will mean that diners desperate for some fast food will be able to wave their MasterCard at a payment point in the drive-thru and have the price of their burger deducted straight from their plastic.

The cards will have to be a PayPass version with technology from VeriFone, however. The technology is now being trialled at two burger joints in the US, in Dallas and New York, and if all goes well, will be rolled out in more 'restaurants'.

Similar RFID projects are already underway in Mobil and Exxon petrol stations in the US.