The cars we drive continue to become more complicated machines. Aside from the standard sensors used for tire pressure and oil levels, self-driving vehicles require more complicated versions, including cameras and radar sensors. This creates an extraordinary amount of data that needs to be collected and processed. Constellation Network and Schaeffler Automotive have partnered to develop a standard for a new data network that will handle the petabytes of data these vehicles will produce.
So Many Use Cases
In the research paper “Why Automotive Data Exchanged Fail in a B2B Environment,” Schaeffler details the automotive data market’s issues. The current infrastructure for a healthy data economy is non-existent. While vehicles are creating massive amounts of data through sensors cataloging, speed, and driving habits, there is no way to aggregate and analyze it on a large scale. The ability to store and share this data between automakers and other businesses would create a healthy data economy. Using this data, intelligently could alleviate multiple issues, including traffic congestion, ride-sharing, and road maintenance.
To fix this issue, Constellation is working with the Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) to engineer a solution to this data problem. Constellation and MOBI share the goal of making transportation greener and more affordable using the blockchain.
From the Schaeffler research paper: “The goal is to propose a working DLT architecture that enables a prospering data exchange in the mobility sector between stakeholders of both private enterprises and public agencies.”
Traffic on the Blockchain
Constellation’s blockchain technology allows compatible tech industries to connect to this data to analyze and act upon. The team has demoed an MVP tracking vehicle location in real-time. They go into detail about collecting data about other Internet of Things (IoT) in the future.
This data is recorded to the DAG blockchain, providing easily searched and transparent data.
Data Monetization
Once vehicles are connected to the DAG blockchain, their data is increasingly valuable. Constellation and Schaeffer’s proposal is to implement a “pay-per-use” commercial model where businesses can purchase data as required. For example, during congestion times, this data could be used to re-route traffic or coordinate traffic lights to change their schedule. Drivers could be incentivized to take these alternate routes and even paid for sharing their information. This “just in time” approach would keep the drivers’ personal information private or kept off-chain. Even better if Constellation’s native DAG token is used to facilitate these payments.
A permanent factual public record of vehicle usage marks the first step in creating automated infrastructure and “Smart Cities.” The advent of 5G and other IoT technologies will make Constellation and MOBI’s work extremely important soon.
Information on the Constellation Network can be found here.
Information on the DAG token can be found here.
