Today, the mobility sector is one of the most prominent, as well as fastest-growing, sectors worldwide, when judged by size and user numbers. Nonetheless, increasing vehicle connectivity constitutes rising privacy and security problems. All vehicles connect to centralized servers by sending sensitive data to manufacturers or mobility service providers’ servers.

However, the automotive and mobility sector is aware of the current issues faced. Hence, several articles and research papers have been published to address this challenge. In these papers, Blockchain’s role is emphasized in ensuring secure, private IoT vehicles.

Still, there are no hardware devices that securely communicate with the Cardano blockchain. PeakChain, the Connected Car Solution Provider on Cardano, will develop a hardware device connecting cars to the Cardano. This is accomplished by sending sensitive data to the Blockchain and managing the vehicle wallet.

PeakChain Cardano Wallet Device Application domains

PeakChain device, as mentioned above, will help unlock innumerable mobility solutions for exclusive Cardano Blockchain use. Ultimately, this will lead to increased demand for the Cardano blockchain and boost both retail and institutional adoption.

Below are some of the application domains of the PeakChain device.

1- Remote Software Update:

Given the rapid digitalization and proliferation of vehicle connectivity, the number of ECUs (Electronic Control Units) embedded in each Car is growing at a significant pace.

ECUs contain software that should be continuously maintained and updated. That way, fix bugs can be applied while features can be enhanced.

The firmware update process could be done by driving to a service center and flashing the software manually, or through a remote software update.

The remote software update represents one of the biggest security challenges in the automotive industry.

Similar to Tesla, one current solution is using a VPN. Still, the long-term solution should be by connecting cars to the Blockchain using a dedicated device and performing the updates in a decentralized way.

Thus, a hardware component with vehicle connectivity and which receives ECU update instructions through blockchain transactions, but without a centralized manufacturer server in use, is integral. This approach will reduce the malicious actors’ attack surface.

2- Insurance

Car Insurance companies are willing to offer customizable insurance contracts based on their customers’ driving behavior. Nonetheless, such driving behavior contains sensitive content that should be collected directly from the car, like speed, braking behavior, etc..,

Hence, a hardware device is needed to collect these sensitive data directly from the vehicle, hash it and transmit it securely to the Blockchain.

Just the allowed actors could decode the driving data existing in the Blockchain using their private keys.

3- Electric Vehicles

The proliferation of electric vehicles is incredibly fast. Still, all data is managed in a centralized manner — examples of these include the car manufacturers’ or charging station service providers’ servers. Obviously, though, all vehicle data should be managed by the charging service provider platforms for charging electric cars.

To help enable a smooth charging user experience, automatic vehicle charging should be adapted based on the customer’s need and their typical preferred journey habits. Consequently, the car should interact with other IoT devices like a smart home. Special hardware embedded in the car is, in this use case, essential for secure and private data communication through the Blockchain

4. Car-sharing Services

Car-sharing services, similar to other mobility sectors, are increasing rapidly. However, currently, central entities manage payments, contracts, and customer/car data. This leads user data open to being tracked and abused.

To alleviate security and privacy issues, customers should ultimately communicate and exchange with the car, as well as pay, in a complete peer-to-peer manner utilizing the Blockchain. To complement this goal, dedicated hardware that is decentralized, private, and secure should be rolled out.

With all the above in mind, we will implement the car-sharing use case in our proposal submitted in fund 9: PeakChain Car-Sharing Platform

5. Fleet Management services

Logistic companies must monitor fleets to reduce fuel consumption and optimize driving behavior and trajectory. Fleet management data is vital for developing a business. This data should always remain confidential, as security or privacy concerns could impact competitiveness.

Also, there is the need to manage the fleet data through the Blockchain using special vehicles-embedded hardware — this device will be capable of retrieving and transmitting the needed data.

We will implement the Fleet-Management use case in our proposal submitted in fund 9: PeakChain Fleet_Management Platform

6. Ridesharing/Ride-hailing services (like Uber)

The ridesharing services market size is growing worldwide. However, much like car-sharing and fleet management services, users should control their data entirely. The data retrieved from the car and trajectory of the travel and cost, as such, should remain confidential and not open to abuse or manipulation from third parties. In addition, the payment should occur in a peer-to-peer manner between the client and the car.

Thus, a hardware device is needed to connect to the vehicle to ensure the secure management of customer and car data using the Blockchain. This further assures a secure peer-to-peer payment between the customer and the car.

We will implement the Ridesharing/Ride-hailing use case in our proposal submitted in fund 9: PeakChain Uber on Cardano

Original article published in PeakChain Medium Publication under this link

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To Support our educational content and contribute in the Success of PeakChain Automotive Solutions, we appreciate delegating to our PeakChain Pool, Ticker: [PKCP]

Support also our PeakChain Automotive Solutions in Project Catalyst Fund 9!

1- PeakChain Car Wallet Device

2- PeakChain Uber on Cardano

3- PeakChain Fleet Management Platform

4- PeakChain Car-Sharing Platform

Author: Oussama Benmahmoud, CEO of PeakSoft GmbH and Founder of PeakChain