Ford Motor is exploring blockchain technology and geo-fencing to precisely trace the “green miles” ran by its energy-saving vehicles. Yesterday, Ford divulged that it is expanding its European plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) trial venture to Cologne in Germany.
The US automaker intends to validate the real-world benefits of these energy-saving vehicles for the commercial vehicle owners, ecosystem and operators.
The trial, which is also being carried out on Valencia and London, will place nine Ford Transit Custom Plug-In Hybrid vans and one Tourneo Customs Plug-In Hybrid people-transit to the trial in a range of real-world use cases.
By documenting all the metadata on the blockchain, the vehicle manufacturer intends to maximize environmental benefits of its range of PHEV vehicles. Mark Harvey, Ford Europe director elaborated as follows:
“Ford is committed to delivering new, more environmentally sustainable vehicles that can help address the mobility challenges our cities face. […] The plug-in hybrid electric vehicle trials with our partners in the City of Cologne build upon our ongoing electrification programmes elsewhere in Europe, and bring us all closer to meeting our combined urban air quality goals.”
Across Europe, cities are creating low-emission zones in an effort to manage issues with air quality, ensuring that polluting vehicles do not make way into the city. Ford trusts this geo-fencing and blockchain may assist cities to administer the area effectively. In this regard, Ford-Werke GmbH chairman Gunnar Herrmann said:
“The blockchain technology we are testing here in Cologne enables secure, tamper-proof tracking and logging of vehicle emissions records, which makes it ideal for the PHEV pilot. Security, trust and transparency of emissions data are of paramount importance to all stakeholders in this project, and are key for our vision of cleaner air in the city.”
Recently, Ford, BMW, General Motors, Honda and Renault had revealed their plan to trial a blockchain based card identification and payment mechanism next month in the US.
The collaboration between the five key auto manufacturers intends to trial the vehicle ID solution built under the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative. The project involves assigning cars with digital IDs associated to ownership, service background and a wallet permitting the vehicle to mechanically remit fees without exclusive hardware.
