By Ali Qammar
Big things are currently happening over in Germany!
Zuffenhausen-based company, Porsche, in collaboration with XAIN (a Berlin-based start-up) has announced that they are testing blockchain applications in their cars.
It makes Porsche the first automobile company to implement this technology and successfully test it in a car. The main reasons behind the initiative are to make unlocking, granting access and streamlining payments easier, and ultimately, make vehicles safer and better.
Porsche believes that blockchain will have a lot of benefits that include parking, locking and unlocking a car, even loaning out a company vehicle to an employee at a specified time and date.
They are confident that the integration of blockchain with vehicles will vastly improve the general driving experience. Through the auditable data logging, processed data is encrypted locally, and the user will be in control of this data and the decisions to use it for different situations.
With this as the basis, the future will see highly-improved functions, for instance, local data obtained and then shared in a secure way with other cars, leading to learning effects which make all driving experience for the connected vehicles safer.
Porsche may be the first manufactures to test this amazing technology, but others have also decided to team up. For instance, BMW confirmed their teamwork with VeChain Thor, and Volkswagen is in partnership with IOTA for the same purpose.
Negative press is an ongoing issue between customers and their car manufacturers, but blockchain may be the solution to this.
However, the holding factor is the lack of confidence people have generally towards scalability and blockchain. All that is required is proof that it can successfully be scaled with no single effect on the performance.
Indeed, this is an exciting step by Porsche and blockchain but then, what is the future for them? If it goes past the testing concept straight into the real use of the technology, then for sure, blockchain would be a significant game-changer in the automobile industry too.
