Near field communications reader with selectable commands for vehicles

Security apparatus for a vehicle which is responsive to a near field communication (NFC) tag, comprising:

• an NFC antenna disposed at an outer surface of the vehicle establishing an NFC pairing region;
• receiver circuitry coupled to the antenna and configured to decode NFC signals from the NFC tag when the NFC tag is positioned in the NFC pairing region, wherein the receiver circuitry has an awake mode for receiving the NFC signals and a sleep mode in which the NFC signals are not received;
• a plurality of proximity sensors configured to detect presence of the NFC tag according to a plurality of subregions within the NFC pairing region, wherein the proximity sensors detect presence of the NFC tag independent of any NFC signals;
• and
• a control circuit configured to (1) change the receiver circuitry from the sleep mode to the awake mode in response to the proximity sensors detecting the NFC tag in the NFC pairing region, and (2) select a user security command to be accessed using the NFC tag according to at least one of the subregions where the proximity sensors detected the NFC tag.