The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI)’s Vehicle Identity (VID) II Working Group unveiled the second part of a vehicle identity standard that uses blockchain technology, according to an announcement.
MOBI is a nonprofit alliance that includes automakers, startups and smart city leaders, among others, working on standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers and adjacent innovations, per the announcement.
The VID II Standard harnesses the VID I Standard, which the announcement describes as a “vehicle birth certificate,” to illustrate the use of VID for different purposes. Maintenance traceability and vehicle registration are two focuses for the working group.
“A secure digital vehicle identity sets the foundation for a fully automatic network for usage-based transportation services,” MOBI COO and Co-Founder Tram Vo said in the announcement. “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.”
Ford and BMW co-chair the VID II Working Group, which also has the support of a number of companies, including USAA, IBM, Honda, AWS and Accenture.
“Ford believes this research into vehicle identity technology could lead to better ownership experiences,” Cynthia Flanigan, director of vehicle research and technology for Ford Research and Advanced Engineering stated. Flanigan added that Ford believes the technology could make the buying process easier in the future.
The VID has other use cases, such as electric auto charging and vehicle financing, among other purposes, according to the announcement.
In 2019, J.P. Morgan’s wholesale car financing division filed a patent application to leverage blockchain to monitor the vehicle inventory it finances for auto dealers. The application discussed a distributed ledger-based type of floorplan lending, a revolving line of credit that lets auto dealers borrow against their retail inventory.
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