Automotive industry bigshots comprising General Motors, Renault, Ford, and BMW have recently announced that they intend to hop onto the blockchain bandwagon. Reportedly, the string of tech partners with around 30 founding members have formed the biggest consortium – MOBI (Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative) to focus on exploiting the blockchain technology in the automotive & transportation industry.
Sources familiar with the matter revealed that with MOBI the carmakers hope to create a number of standards that will enable secure payments for the myriad operations in the autonomous car hailing & ridesharing sector. The group also fairly aims for making transportation safer, affordable and widely accessible by harnessing blockchain technology.
According to reliable reports, blockchain has undoubted potential that is set to impact a range of industries. The smart contracts and decentralized ledger component especially has the potential to change the way the organizations use and consume data.
It has been reported that MOBI’s scope will widely vary from data tracking, payments, and supply management, to pricing and consumer finance, to futuristic automotive industry sectors such as ride-sharing systems and autonomous vehicles.
Chris Ballinger, MOBI’s first chairman and chief executive officer was quoted saying that the blockchain, IOT, and related technologies are all set to reshape the automotive industry trends and the way consumers insure, purchase and use vehicles. He further added that by bringing the automakers, startups, suppliers, and government agencies under one roof, the organization can then effectively accelerate technology adoption to benefit their businesses and ultimately consumers & the communities.
If sources are to be believed, this isn’t the first time that automotive industry participants have been looking to disrupt blockchain technologies. For the record, Renault has already joined the R3 research consortium, Toyota is carrying out its own research, while Daimler is part of the Hyperledger project.