Volkswagen to Present Proof of Concept with IOTA at CEBIT 2018

Volkswagen is ready to present the Proof of Concept which it has developed working with IOTA. This will be presented at the CEBIT 2018 – the largest and most internationally representative computer and technology expo. Johann Jungwirth, the Chief Design Officer of Volkswagen and member of supervisory board of IOTA foundation, announced this using his Twitter handle.

Understanding the challenges

The teaser used by Jungwirth in the tweet gives a really good understanding of Volkswagen foresight about how the world of the auto will be in 2020. It is believed by many industry experts and Volkswagen that there will be more than 250 million connected vehicles on the road.

Volkswagen, together with @iotatoken will show at #cebit18 a proof of concept how the trusted transfer of software over-the-air to vehicles can be securely documented using the #tangle. Great example how distributed ledger technology can be used in the future pic.twitter.com/4wuc7pdKfv

— Johann Jungwirth (@JohannJungwirth) June 9, 2018

Under this central hypothesis, the research believes that the level of automation needed to frequently perform remote updates of car components would be really high.  The document believes the challenge today is that the database is centrally held and it becomes really difficult to have a transparent audit of the same. This is where Volkswagen and IOTA believe blockchain can help.

IOTA believes it can become the underlying protocol for car makers and suppliers to perform secure updates and provide transparency to audits trails.

Also, read: Waves Making “Waves” with its Latest Updates, Bulls are at Top Speed

Finding solutions in blockchain

Both, IOTA and Volkswagen over a period of 2 months, since they announced their partnership, have been working on common goals where they plan to document over the air update on a data storage medium where data integrity is ensured. They would also be integrating IOTA’s blockchain to prove interoperability and production readiness.

The Proof Of Concept (POC) has given an insight to Volkswagen regarding the core benefits it can have by using the blockchain technology that IOTA provides. These include establishing digital trust and transparency with customers and authorities including third parties, ability to provide evidence with regards to auto components, handle product recalls well, ability to provide incremental updates and tamper-proof and transparent statistical recording.

This would also give the opportunities for future to work on things like on-demand features of configuration, exchange information and ecosystem the allows usage of data securely to customize services like usage-based insurance.

This could be really path-breaking for the auto industry and will bring a paradigm shift in the way auto components and insurance industry provide support and services. If a company as big as Volkswagen, which has 120 production facilities in 31 countries and sales reach in 150 countries adopts this, it won’t take time for others to adapt it as well.

Will this proof of concept be a game changer in Auto and pave a path for other consumer industry as well? Do let us know your views on the same