When talking about blockchain technology, most of us will directly think of applications in the financial industry like bitcoin, cryptocurrencies, or security. This technology, however, is also increasingly interesting for other sectors. An example would be the music industry, where artists traditionally face the problem of piracy (Talin, 2020). With blockchain, artists can distribute their content directly and payments take place as soon as someone uses it. Another sector that blockchain could have a great impact on is the mobility sector, and specifically ownership of mobility. The latter is a phenomena that has become more relevant over the past few years, as Mobility as a Service (MaaS) has given rise to an economy of vehicle sharing. This is starting to disrupt the traditional mobility industry, and is expected to grow exponentially in the coming years.
Deloitte Consulting published a report identifying medium and long term results of blockchain in the automotive industry. In the medium term, it is expected that cars will no longer be owned but rather be used. As cars are no longer owned, users’ data should be safely stored, and implementing smart contracts ensures that laws are enforced and insurance is taken care of. Moreover, cars’ history can be stored on the blockchain (e.g. previous owners, technical information, maintenance information). Additionally, payments take place instantly and are safer via blockchain. In the long term, the adoption of autonomous driving will take place. With self-driving cars, cars could be connected via blockchain to share information such as location, technical information and weather forecasts. This leads to huge data collection and optimization of routes and car sharing. Real-time data (e.g. accidents, traffic jams) can be shared between cars via blockchain resulting in better flow of traffic. Additionally, cars can store and share information on their clients’ driving, which allows insurers to charge less for safer or more environmentally friendlier drivers.
There are, however, several challenges that need to be overcome for blockchain to be implemented in the automotive industry. First, the scalability of blockchain does not yet allow for such large-scale projects to be fully supported. For instance, password resets are currently not possible on blockchain, as this can only be done chronologically and cryptographic encryption makes it extra hard. Furthermore, there are not enough experts on blockchain to support smooth integration of blockchain in the automotive industry. Lastly, there is no regulatory framework on blockchain yet, which makes it difficult to operate effectively. Only if these issues can be overcome, I think that blockchain will help disrupt the mobility industry. What do you think? Do you think that blockchain technology has the potential to change the industry? Would you switch from owning cars to using cars?
References
Athlon. “How Is Blockchain Changing Our Mobility?” Www.Athlon.Com, 2018, www.athlon.com/be-en/about-athlon/latest-news/september2018_doorgelicht.
Deloitte Consulting. Accelerating Technology Disruption in the Automotive Market Blockchain in the Automotive Industry Contents. https://www2.deloitte.com/content/dam/Deloitte/cn/Documents/consumer-business/deloitte-cn-consumer-blockchain-in-the-automotive-industry-en-180809.pdf
Talin, Benjamin. “Blockchain – Possibilities, Applications and Use Cases for the Distributed Ledger Technology.” MoreThanDigital, 23 July 2018, www.morethandigital.info/en/blockchain-possibilities-applications-use-cases-distributed-ledger-technology/#Artists.
Hi Cas, Interesting article!
Vehicle sharing is already happening in Rotterdam in the form of E-scooters. I like this idea, especially with cars as it will lead to a less cars in the city. Furthermore, most cars are not actively used for the most hours of the day. I therefor agree that mobility sharing is a potential solution for this in the future and it is certainly more efficient.
I do however wonder, what the added value of blockchain is in this upcoming trend. For instance, Felyx is already succcesfully operating on a small scale without the use of blockchain. The part you mention about ‘connection to the blockchain will lead to optimization of routes and car sharing, with real-time data’. From this it is still unclear to me how blockchain enhances this process, we already have apps such as google maps and waze.
I would like to ask you how you think Uber should play into this trend. Should they enhance the new technology or battle against it, and why?
Hi Cas, interesting blog! I strongly believe that Mobility as a Service should be of high priority for cities in order to overcome the growing population and congestion in large cities and that blockchain will be supporting this. Especially knowing that the Dutch population will increase with 1 million in the next 15 years. Rotterdam is expected to grow by 15% unitl 2035. MaaS enables to create optimized routes for the consumer, involving different transportation services and shared vehicles. Blockchain technology is able to track and share transportation usage information among involved parties to create synergy. Last April, Sony developed a blockchain platform for MaaS, proposed by the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water to improve transporation efficiency in large cities. As you can see, it is already in development and the implementation of blockchain technology in the Dutch transportation services will be executed soon.
https://www.smartcitiesworld.net/news/news/blockchain-platform-developed-for-mobility-as-a-service–5239
https://www.cbs.nl/nl-nl/nieuws/2019/37/sterke-groei-in-steden-en-randgemeenten-verwacht