BMW, GM, Ford and Renault Join to Build Blockchain for Cars
Four of the world’s largest automakers join to build blockchain for cars. The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) has been formed by BMW, General Motors, Ford, Renault, IBM, Bosch, Blockchain at Berkeley and 30 others.
The consortium seek to accelerate the use of blockchain technology in the automobile industry. Partners will collaborate to develop various use cases, beginning with vehicle identity and history.
MOBI has pulled together automotive manufacturers, that account for over 70 percent of the market of global vehicle production.
It has enlisted an impressive team of the ‘Who’s Who’ in the blockchain industry, including Brian Behlendorf, executive director of Hyperledger and Joseph Lubin founder of ConsenSys and a co-founder of Ethereum.
Alongside partners invested in the initiative, are affiliates from energy through to government agencies, pulling resources and specialist knowledge for swift fulfilment of proof testing and more.
To date, the most notable automotive company to look into blockchain for cars is Toyota’s Research institute. Others joined consortiums like R3 and Linux Foundation’s Hyperledger, that support a broad variety of industries.
MOBI, however is a group that is dedicated to the automotive space and will focus entirely on potential use cases for this industry alone.
Interestingly, MOBI’s first CEO, Chris Ballinger is former CFO and Director of Mobility Services for the Toyota Research Institute. In a statement to mark the launch, Ballinger said:
“Blockchain and related trust enhancing technologies are poised to redefine the automotive industry and how consumers purchase, insure and use vehicles,”
Many of the biggest names in technology have been making the the move into ‘autotech’, Amazon brought Alexa to cars, Microsoft Azure has a car system and Google is helping Waymo develop an autonomous-driving car.
MOBI aims to bring tangible benefits to a broad consumer base, by developing blockchain for cars and other automobiles, the technology can offer secure ways to reduce the time and cost of services people use today.
