The Royal Bank of Scotland (RBS) has demonstrated a technology that uses radio waves to transmit data and make a payment.

The contactless cards allow payment for items up to £10 by touching specially-enabled RBS debit or credit cards to a terminal.

In a publicity stunt designed to show off the speed of the transaction, a Formula 1 car from the RBS-sponsored AT &T Williams team used the new type of card to buy food at a McDonald's drive-through in London.

The bank said that trials of the cards show they can halve the time taken for a cash transaction. UK retailers will start using the new technology from September 2007.