Toyota Research Institute (TRI), a unit of Toyota Motor North America, has partnered with MIT Media lab and five other firms in a move to explore blockchain technology for the development of driverless cars.
The announcement was made at Consensus 2017 at New York, where TRI revealed a series of notable partnerships with a vision for how blockchain technology could move the automotive giant into the future, CoinDesk reported.
Other partners of this blockchain initiative include BigchainDB, Oaken Innovations, Commuterz and Gem, that are working to explore different potential use cases of this nascent technology.
According to a statement by Toyota, the blockchain project for driverless cars would come into impact in three areas namely data sharing, ride-sharing transactions and user-based insurance.
“Our hope is that other industry stakeholders will join this effort to bring safe and reliable autonomous vehicles one step closer to reality,” Neha Narula, director of Digital Currency Initiative at the MIT Media Lab, said in a statement, as reported by CoinDesk.
The project will help businesses and consumers to securely share data on testing and driving and the sharing and usage of those cars in order to help in setting insurance rates. Also, Toyota is utilizing blockchain technology to lower car insurance costs. Reports by Reuters said that the vehicle sensor’s will collect driving data and store in a blockchain that will enable car owners to be eligible for lower insurance costs by providing their insurance companies with an increased transparency to curb fraud.
