Searles Chevrolet of Caledonia, Ont. has added a new and non-human member to its team to help manage the COVID-19 situation.
Janus is a standalone, touchless pedestal and monitor that audibly welcomes customers into the dealership while simultaneously checking their body temperature, and whether or not the person is wearing a mask.
“OEMs are now mandating more and more that (we) dealers invest in or find solutions to this public health crisis, so we can continue doing business as usual,” said Mark Searles, General Manager at Searles Chevrolet. “Currently we are already checking temperatures, but this new Janus unit takes away the need for us to waste human resources on this necessary step.”
Searles said he believes the technology will provide some peace-of-mind for both the dealership’s staff members and its customers. The goal of Janus is to ensure that both groups adhere to the basic safety guidelines set by the province. It has been configured to quickly monitor body temperature and “welcome” customers into the dealership at the specific Caledonia location — if a person’s temperature reads below 37.3°C.
“That is the body temperature threshold outlined by the government of Canada’s public health guidelines, based off of World Health Organization (WHO) recommendations,” said Searles Chevrolet in its news release. “If Janus detects a customer entering the dealership, with a high temperature, the device will audibly ask the person to ‘please wait for assistance from a staff member.’”
If a customer’s temperature reading is 37.3°C or above, Janus will conduct the process again and the final decision will be left to a dealership employee on whether that person may enter the store or not.
The Janus monitor also includes facial recognition technology that alerts dealership employees to non-compliance around mask-wearing requirements. For example, if a customer or employee is not wearing a mask, or if it is not positioned properly on their face, Janus will politely ask the customer to “please wear a mask.”
“If both requirements are met (temperature and mask), the system will display a big green checkmark and say ‘Welcome to Searles Chevrolet’” said the company.
The dealership also plans to test and deploy more of the system’s functionality, such as its ability to perform COVID-19 checklists and to both take and manage appointments. It can also be used for employee time logs.
The technology was created by Solutions into Motion, a company based in Brantford, Ont. and which is known for its GPS brands Trackem Fleet GPS and WhereSafe Consumer and Family GPS.
