Ford and BMW collaborate on Blockchain vehicle identity standard

Ford and BMW are collaborating in a working group with the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) and have released the second part of the Vehicle Identity Standard (VID II). 

MOBI is a non-profit alliance of the world’s leading vehicle manufacturers together with many other stakeholders from the industry, including NGOs, insurers, transit agencies, and technology companies. MOBI aims to create standards for Blockchain and Distributed Ledger Technologies. 

The VID II standard follows on from VID I, which is a Vehicle Birth Certificate. Two new use cases are now being worked on – those of Vehicle Registration and Maintenance Traceability. 

Vehicle Registration enables existing vehicle systems across states and countries to link up, by integrating them on a secure Blockchain ledger. Maintenance Traceability aims to implement a tamper-proof history of vehicles, so that buyers, regulators and insurers can proceed with confidence. 

Buyers and sellers can have more confidence given that an immutable and fully trustworthy record of vehicles is kept on the Blockchain. This can promote far more reliable vehicle prices. Sellers can receive the proper market value for their vehicle and buyers will have more exact price ranges of vehicles.  

“Ford believes this research into vehicle identity technology could lead to better ownership experiences,” says Cynthia Flanigan, Director, Vehicle Research and Technology, Ford Research and Advanced Engineering. “We also think this technology could help simplify the purchasing process in the future.” 

VID II builds upon VID I to open up even more use cases such as supply chain, vehicle financing, electric vehicle charging, and autonomous vehicle data exchange among many others. 

“A secure digital vehicle identity sets the foundation for a fully automatic network for usage-based transportation services,” said MOBI COO and Co-Founder, Tram Vo. “We expect this network for frictionless transfer of value in the New Economy of Movement to open up trillions of dollars of new opportunities to monetize vehicles, services, data, and infrastructure.” 

MOBI aims to make transport ‘greener’ and safer, and bring the maximum efficiency, at the same time as making transport cheaper, yet less congested. Given that it is non-profit, it is also agnostic as to the type of technology that it leverages.

Disclaimer: This article is provided for informational purposes only. It is not offered or intended to be used as legal, tax, investment, financial, or other advice.