Toyota looks into blockchain

Toyota Research Institute, a wholly owned unit of Toyota Motor North America, has partnered with MIT Media lab and five other companies to explore blockchain technology for the development of driverless cars.

In a statement Toyota claimed the project would enable businesses and consumers to securely share data on testing and driving as well as the sharing and usage of such cars to help set insurance rates.

The database would use blockchain, a public online ledger of transactions that first became well known as the software underpinning bitcoin, the first digital currency.

‘Hundreds of billions of miles of human driving data may be needed to develop safe and reliable autonomous vehicles,’ said Chris Ballinger, Toyota Research Institute’s director of mobility services and chief financial officer.

Chris continued, ‘Blockchains and distributed ledgers may enable pooling data from vehicle owners, fleet managers, and manufacturers to shorten the time for reaching this goal.’

 

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