MOBI is a nonprofit alliance of many of the world’s largest vehicle manufacturers, along with startups, NGOs, transit agencies, insurers, toll road providers, smart city leaders, and technology companies creating standards in blockchain, distributed ledgers, and related technologies.
The convergence of a number of emerging technologies —
including AI, IoT, and Blockchain — permits any smart device, be
it a vehicle, smartphone, sensor, road, or other piece of
transportation infrastructure, to not only have an identity but to
communicate and autonomously participate as an independent
agent in economic transactions. These transactions will become
a large part of the new pay-as-you-go mobility services
ecosystem.
Such an increase of decentralized agents, combined with the
frequency and latency requirements of these transactions, will
outstrip the processing ability of centralized cloud services and
require increasing execution at the “edge.”
Decentralized agents, transacting autonomously in edge
networks, require a new type of digital identifier, one that is
machine-readable and which anchors a physical object to
relevant attributes, characteristics, and capabilities. For a
mobile device, such as a vehicle, one of the most important and
valuable attributes is its location. Combining a secure identity
with time-stamped locations creates a “trusted trip” and, for the
first time, enables marginal cost pricing for many new classes of
mobility transactions, such as urban road tolling, meter-free
parking, congestion management, carbon and pollution taxing,
usage-based insurance, and other Mobility as a Service (MaaS)
applications. Together, these new transactions will comprise a
multi-trillion-dollar ecosystem we call the New Economy of
Movement. (Mobi White Paper)
Five trends and technologies that are poised to change the mobility
ecosystem for the better — MOBI calls them the BASICs:
Blockchain: A tamper-proof distributed ledger that records
transactions enables entities — be they individuals,
organizations, vehicles, or connected infrastructure — to directly
exchange value and coordinate behavior. The real promise of
blockchain technology is that it could drastically reduce the cost
of trust by means of a radical, decentralized approach to
business data and accounting.
Artificial Intelligence: Artificial intelligence allows machines to
solve complex problems that would otherwise require human
input. Vehicles will become increasingly autonomous, not only in
moving but also in their ability to initiate and execute V2X
transactions. Autonomous vehicles and AI more generally will
radically change not only mobility but the entire economy.
Services: Digital technologies are turning products into services.
We are seeing a rapid acceleration of Mobility as a Service and
usage-based consumption models. Automakers will sell fewer
cars to private owners while expanding their mobility and fleet
management services, and insurance companies increasingly
see their future in usage-based mobility insurance.
Internet of Things: Improvements in internet connectivity and
speed, sensors, and computing power are turning vehicles and
mobility infrastructure (tolls, charging stations, etc.) into nodes
on the IoT. Vehicles are now gathering a variety of rich
telematics data and increasingly have the computing power to
extract insights from that data.
Connectivity: It’s not only vehicles — people are becoming
increasingly connected as well. Nearly half of the world’s
population has a smartphone. Having a smartphone means that
around half of people are constantly connected to the internet
and to ubiquitous internet commerce platforms. Connected
vehicles are the “fourth screen” and an additional access point
to these commerce platforms.
How Can Blockchain Disrupt Mobility?
The business value added by blockchain is expected to grow to
more than $176 billion by 2025, then surge to exceed $3.1 trillion
by 2030. It is projected by a World Economic Forum survey that
by 2027, 10% of world GDP will be stored on blockchain. So,
what makes blockchain so special? The answer lies in
blockchain’s ability to enable distributed networks and create
value for shareholders and stakeholders. First, blockchain
improves quality and profitability through automation in various
ways: smart contracts and self-validating networks, data and
transaction traceability, improved efficiency (especially in
applications where the number of intermediaries is reduced),
control over what data is shared and how, enhanced security,
and its tamper-proof nature. Second, it adds value by
increasing or establishing transparency among stakeholders
through the distributed characteristic of blockchain. This means
a single source of truth, redundancy with no central point of
failure, and no central “honeypot” database to attract malicious
actors. Finally, blockchain allows for reinventing products and
processes, including decentralized autonomous services,
tokenization, and digital assets as well as digital identity use
cases.
With regards to mobility, blockchain technology can improve
data integrity and robustness, enable decentralized, peer-topeer transactions, and establish reliable digital identities for
vehicles, components, and consumers. This is accomplished
through a number of capabilities, including:
Reading and writing encrypted transactions as blocks of
data that are linked chronologically through hashing
algorithms, which helps to prevent data manipulation or
deletion.
Using consensus mechanisms to sync distributed information
sets across peer nodes in the blockchain network, which
creates a decentralized, immutable record.
Sharing data through a distributed ledger across diverse
participants, which reduces points of failure.
Granting permissioned access to known parties and their
authenticated users and things, which allows people to
bypass traditional intermediaries when transferring value.
transaction traceability, improved efficiency (especially in
applications where the number of intermediaries is reduced),
control over what data is shared and how, enhanced security,
and its tamper-proof nature. Second, it adds value by
increasing or establishing transparency among stakeholders
through the distributed characteristic of blockchain. This means
a single source of truth, redundancy with no central point of
failure, and no central “honeypot” database to attract malicious
actors. Finally, blockchain allows for reinventing products and
processes, including decentralized autonomous services,
tokenization, and digital assets as well as digital identity use
cases.
With regards to mobility, blockchain technology can improve
data integrity and robustness, enable decentralized, peer-to-peer transactions, and establish reliable digital identities for
vehicles, components, and consumers. This is accomplished
through a number of capabilities, including:
Reading and writing encrypted transactions as blocks of
data that are linked chronologically through hashing
algorithms, which helps to prevent data manipulation or
deletion.
Using consensus mechanisms to sync distributed information
sets across peer nodes in the blockchain network, which
creates a decentralized, immutable record.
Sharing data through a distributed ledger across diverse
participants, which reduces points of failure.
Granting permissioned access to known parties and their
authenticated users and things, which allows people to
bypass traditional intermediaries when transferring value.