Yesterday the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) unveiled its latest set of standards for mobility data sharing. The starting point was to address issues such as how cars could share data to prevent a crash and how someone could use a single app and payment for a daily commute that might use several modes of transport.
MOBI’s Connected Mobility Data Marketplace (CMDM) Working Group led by Denso and GM produced a set of standards to enable a marketplace for mobility data that ensures user privacy. In turn, that could enable new business models. What blockchain adds is the provenance of the data and hopefully removing a centralized honeypot of data that can be hacked.
“This framework gives mobility providers valuable guidance on how we can all work together to make transportation safer, smarter and more efficient,” said Roger Berg, VP of North American Research and Development at DENSO. “Sharing data, securely and through common standards, can unlock a vast array of positive mobility outcomes, from accident reduction to privacy protection to improving traffic flow.”
Apart from creating the data and its provenance, the working group explored how cars might share data with other cars or toll booths, also referred to as vehicle-to-anything data exchange. Another use case includes planning a trip that might involve a train, bus and different modes of transport. The working group investigated how traffic safety might be improved by coordinating between autonomous cars, big data and edge computing.
One of the members of the 19-strong group is the Constellation Network, a startup focused on using distributed ledger technology (DLT) to provide data for AI and machine learning. Its video below highlights some of the mobility sharing needs. (Not an endorsement.)
MOBI was keen to point out that the standards focus on functional models rather than data governance.
Other CMDM Working Group members included Accenture, AMO Labs, Cognizant, Continental, CPChain, DMX, Fifth9, Filament, Ford, IBM, NuCypher, Ocean Protocol, RouteOne, ShareRing, Swedish Blockchain Association, and Toyota Insurance Management Solutions (TIMS).
Another MOBI standard for Vehicle Identity (VID) is already in its second iteration.
