Here’s How Blockchain is Changing the Way the Automotive Industry Works

End of the year 2017 saw Bitcoin and other cryptocurrencies at their all-time highs. It caught the eye of the public and resulted in much-needed awareness about bitcoin and the blockchain technology.

It has also paved the way for many projects like the Autoblock and is set to revolutionize several industries all over the world, and all at once.

What has previously considered mere imagination is now a reality. Many companies such as Tesla, Volvo, and Nissan are working to get self-driving cars on the road and make them available to the public.

These self-driving cars will be able to communicate with each other using the Internet of Things (IoT) and share information about traffic and the weather. The blockchain is not just limited to the financial and banking sector but can be beneficial for every industry. Let’s look at how blockchain will impact the automotive industry:

Introduction of Blockchain to Cars

All leading companies in the world spend tons of money to keep themselves competent in the rapidly evolving technological environment by conducting R&D. Which is why the automotive industry is testing the blockchain technology these days.

Porsche claims to be the first one in the industry to conduct feasibility tests of blockchain technology on cars. Earlier this year, they announced a partnership with Xain, a Berlin-based, to test blockchain application in cars. They also claim to be the first automobile company to test and implement blockchain in a vehicle.

Any transaction done on the blockchain is secure and can be processed much faster than traditional systems. Porsche tested how the blockchain technology can be used to lock and unlock a car.

After deployment, it allowed the owner to share access to the car temporarily. Moreover, using this application, users were able to unlock a car in 1.6 seconds, which is six times faster than the current pace.

Furthermore, whenever someone locks or unlocks a car, the data is logged on the blockchain and no one can edit or modify it, making it easy to keep track of who used a vehicle at a given point in time.

Also, all the data is encrypted which makes it 100% secure. It also allows you to remotely access the car or monitor its status using the app.

CarVertical Rooting for Transparency

CarVertical is a startup working on providing solutions based on blockchain for transparent access to a car’s data. At the moment, the data about a car exists in the form of registers and separate databases.

The problem is that the data isn’t publicly available. To get it, you must pay a significant fee to a company who in return will get you access to a small portion of that data. Only a car’s first owner can be sure about its history; all the rest rely on channels that are not 100% reliable.

For example, if a car on average had five different owners in its lifetime, only 20% of them know everything about the vehicle. If you’re purchasing a second-hand car, it is highly probable that the car may have had troubles in the past. Maybe someone tampered with the odometer to cut down some miles or hide airbag deployment.

There is also the possibility that the car was involved in an accident. Now such a piece of information will be available with the insurance company, but since their data is not public, the buyer will never know the full car history.

CarVertical raised 15,000 Ethereum in their ICO for their project which aimed at providing a platform that logs every single piece of information about a car on the blockchain so that data is secure, accessible and cannot be manipulated.

The team revealed that they would gather information about the car from different sources and integrate it with the blockchain registry. It is great for people who want to buy used cars but are afraid that they might be conned.

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Future Implications

There will come a time when everything will be based on the blockchain. If you want to buy a car, the owner will give you a token that will represent the car. Whoever has the token will own the car.

So, if you want to sell your vehicle to someone else, you will send that token to the new buyer. The token will also be used to unlock and then use the car. Each car will have just one token – allowing the holder to be the only one to have access.

If you ever visit the garage for repairs or anything, it will all be recorded on the blockchain. So, if ever the ownership changes or if anyone wants to see how frequently the car has visited the garage, everything will be logged on the blockchain ensuring transparency.

The new owner can check the history of the car since blockchain ensures information access for everyone. Tampering with the mileage of the car will be an old tale as blockchain will have all the records and the owner can’t manipulate the potential new owner.

Since the blockchain is immutable, it protects data from tampering and removes intermediaries from the process. All these elements are equally important for other industries as well and make blockchain the next big thing.

In all reality, the automotive industry is changing, and among many variables, blockchain has a significant role to play in how the automotive industry will move forward into the future.

This article was written by Andrea Bell