MOBI: The Consortium That Brings Blockchain To Vehicles

The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative, also known as MOBI, brings together BMW, GM, Ford, Renault, Honda and Hyundai in what seems like the largest consortium that is adopting blockchain tech to change the way we transport.

Auto manufacturers are now experimenting with blockchain technology to start help us paying for parking tickets and highway tolls in a new initiative. This is all part of a project called MOBI (Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative). However, this consortium and its ambitions are stretched beyond doing away with paper tickets in car parks. MOBI brings a new concept and plans to use the tech to shape the future of transportation as we know it.

As their website describes, MOBI is a non-profit consortium that is in the blockchain news for aiming to “make mobility safer, greener, cheaper and more accessible.” In an era when lack of scale and common standards make it harder for the benefits of blockchain to be realized, MOBI aims to change a lot of things.

Among the people and brands that are involved in MOBI, we can see BMW, General Motors, Groupe Renault, Ford, Honda, Hyundai. Bosch, which creates electric motors, is also involved. There are non-related automotive partners which include IBM, Accenture, Bigchain, Hyperledger, Fetch.AI, Exasys, Vestella, AAIS and Quant.

MOBI’s first project is creating a Vehicle Identity Standard (VID) which is basically a blockchain-based passport for each that comprises a digital ledger of its history. Unlike the paper vehicle ID documents, a blockchain based one cannot be lost, left incomplete or fabricated as MOBI says.

The benefit here is obvious – when buying a used car, the customer can make a more educated guess on whether it is worth the asking price and if it’s likely to go wrong. The blockchain tech could be used to give each car a vehicle identification number (VIN for short) which would mean that payment can be done on a vehicle basis as opposed to from an individual or business.

As the news show, MOBI is also trialling a system which uses a blockchain based VID that will identify vehicles for payments such as parking charges, tolls and specialized tags. The system is designed to see payments going from cars and to cars, sharing electric vehicle data with smart grids in a completely new and revolutionary way.