Topic: What do you think about blockchain powered cars? (Read 2011 times)

I guess that the fees will go to the specific cryptocurrency's network itself. Let's say that you pay for an autonomous taxi in a token that lives on the Ethereum blockchain. The fees will be in ether in this case, thus going to the Ethereum network itself (if the smart contract would be developed that way). But in any case, the smart contract developer can choose where the collected fees will go, so there could exist a possibility that a company would benefit from this.

If this idea becomes a reality in the mainstream world, it would totally change our society for the better.



I just referred to as "powered" in the sense that cars would use the technology itself, rather than being able to power the car with it. But I believe, that blockchains themselves could become a better solution to serve as a database, rather than relying on centralized servers like MySQL does. The advantages that the blockchain brings like no single point of failure, security, and more.

I'm hoping that blockchain tech would become so revolutionary, that would replace many of our traditional systems like databases, identity management, banking, healthcare, and so on. It would be up to the people if they adopt this technology or not. Just sharing my thoughts. 

Oh thanks for giving the link, I really appreciated it. And upon watching the video it seems that this has a very good potential when it comes for loading up gas and other transactions upon using this eWallet. And it looks like this is just applicable for the electric cars but I know this will be good for all cars, this is innovation!

I'm not convinced a blockchain would be the most appropriate solution for that kind of application. A conventional database (MySQL like), with one table for the vehicles, one table for the users and one table for each user session (eventually with the payment details included) may be better. It would be centralized, but there's no point in making it otherwise. A blockchain is an interesting solution, but it's wrong to think it could replace all databases everywhere.

EDIT: title should be corrected, the cars would not be blockchain powered. There's no energy in a blockchain. It's about managing their driving sessions in a blockchain, which is quite different.

This is not true. There are no vehicles complying with NHTSA's Level 4 Autonomous Vehicle classification. These are indeed in a testing phase, and in a quite early phase: these cars just left the garage for private roads... There isn't even any Level 3 vehicle (although Tesla's can, in some routes, perform like a Level 3 Autonomous Vehicle).


Yes, they are quite expensive, hence why they're building Model 3. However, as things are now, probably only Tesla could do some kind of blockchain integration in feasible time without having to overhaul their software.


If the car registered erratic human intervention (high speed and/or wreckless driving) it could upload wallet information and destroy the wallet or simply stall and turn off the car. In case of tampering, the vehicle could destroy its information too. I think this won't be a major problem, unless there's a wallet exploit that a hacker could execute in just a few minutes inside the car.


This is why we need things like these to be developed...


This is indeed questionable. Even more questionable if the hashrate keeps rising, as this won't be implemented soon anywhere, really... Will it be even slightly feasible to double spend in the future in cases like these? My bet is that it won't be feasible or at least highly impractical. It probably won't be worth it for bad guys

So like w huge massive decentralized taxi service ? I first thought you were crazy but this is a good idea.
Using blockchain technology elsewhere sounds good to me since it works so well. Paying fees is the same as paying taxi fair. But who will the fees go to ? The owner of the cars ? A company ? These are things you need to think of first. But great idea.
Nice job thinking outside the box.

What do you mean? Bitcoin is accepted worldwide! It's up to the car owner / renting company to accept it and you can easily move from one town to another and it will still be accepted in the new location  
The car can be easily made to travel only within the city limits, so it never goes out of internet range. Also there's gsm internet, so he'd have to go far into the woods somewhere to lose connection.
Cars have GPS, if it gets stolen the owner will track it down, just like they do with any other rental cars.
What you've mentioned can overcome with ease.

Yes. That would be a major problem towards making this technology become used in the mainstream world. But, I believe that other alternative currencies might be used like Dash which has instant transactions, ideal for making this a reality. There would be also the option for using tokens underlying the Ethereum blockchain and more. The possibilities are endless. As for connection issues, I think that in the future, the internet would be accessible via satellite were nearly every country would have access to it, thus making this technology more practical for cars, and other interconnected devices.

As for car security for wallets funds, then perhaps it could have some sort of cold storage employed where the "keys" are not physically stored in the car, but on a secure paper wallet made on an offline computer. All you would have to do is pay, and the car will know that you did via the blockchain, letting you use it for rides. 



Sure. Here is the link to the video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jw6gaEDpOkM

This technology is very interesting for sure, and would make our lives easier and more efficient, probably replacing taxis and drivers in the future. 

not always paying for gasoline is cheap, you can pay up to $50 some times, and waiting for zero confirmation might be troublesome for some vendors, you can't compare this to let's say a coffee

For a small transaction like a bus fare, do you really need to wait for a confirmation?

This will make a very huge impact to the blockchain technology. And for sure many will be interested for this innovation. I'm curious on what is the video you've watched. Would you mind to post it here so that I see for myself on how great is that idea?

This sounds futuristic, and this can happen in far future. Do you know how far we are from paying gasoline with bitcoins without getting out from the car? There is pay view system in many credit cards, smart phones so this kind of technology is not new, but gas stations will not accept payments in bitcoin for a long time.
This is too fancy for me, I expect this to be available in some new car, I drive 17 years old Clio, so for me this kind of paying is just a silly accessory in the car.

This is a nice idea, if the payment system is fool-proof. As it is right now, the confirmation takes time and you wouldn’t want to stay in the gas station longer than you need to be. Also, if the car goes into a far away place where bitcoin is not accepted and there is no internet connection, the driver still has to bring cash or credit card or something. Plus, the off-chance that the car gets stolen, there must be a back up ready and safe that will be activated once the car is driven without consent.

I have mixed feelings about this idea since the confirmation times would be a big bottleneck for buying gas.
In the end, an off-site or token based solution would have to be used
and if a token based system is the solution, then why use a blockchain solution at all?

And what other uses would it have instead of buying gas?
It's a bit of a overstretch to integrate a wallet into a car and risk the security of funds in case of the car getting stolen for the sole reason of making buying gas convenient.

That is a good application of blockchain and bitcoin. I am just worried if the car is carnapped and the wallet is hacked, then all the funds inside are lost. Wouldn't it be safer if the wallet is not in the car directly. It is offsite but still accessible by the car.

Cars that drive themselves are past the testing phase. They are really safe and ready to be put on the market, the only reason they aren't is the production cost. If they are made cheaper there will surely be some taxis and rental cars driving around and using blockchain should be much safer than using a card reader. I just hope they can make it faster too.

The main problem with Teslas is they are really expensive for a consumer product. They still are targeting the wealthy citizen, who wants to show off and needs a lot of HP under the hood, not the average guy, who wants a cheap electric car to drive to work.

Very interesting! Tesla wants to have a fully autonomous fleet ASAP. Integrating such a thing in their cars, which are already connected to 4G/wifi, would be a big plus and probably something not that hard to do. The cars would charge and the next customer/passenger would pay for that electricity... A bit like Uber, with autonomous electric vehicles and Bitcoin


So let's imagine the blockchain is indeed unfeasible to use such a service, and we do need to use tokens or off chain transaction of some sort... Wouldn't it be just simpler to use what we already have and integrate the car with a blockchain or xapo wallet that offer off-chain, "instant confirmation" transactions? Why reinvent the wheel and use LN?

The initial idea and concept is kind of ok, however, the biggest thing I can see here is that it is incredibly idealistic and frankly doesn't really have any substance as to how something like that would really work. The blockchain just records transactions and everything that happens within Bitcoin, it's not like it can go and make cars refuel themselves or whatever.

I really don't see how something like this would work.

You do have a point mate. The time it takes for transactions to confirm on the Bitcoin network nowadays, would render it useless for these types of applications. But I believe that as time goes by, blockchain technology would evolve and become highly efficient towards helping our world advance towards a better future.

In the meantime, I think that the "Ether" token would be ideal to use for smart contracts that would help drive these cars. Ethereum doesn't seem to have scalability issues unlike Bitcoin so it would be ideal for these tasks now. There is also Dash with its instant transactions, but I'm not sure if it would experience the same adoption and flexibility like Ethereum does with its smart contracts. 



Yes. Bitcoin is becoming more expensive each day, but in the bright side, there is always the option to create a specialized digital token that can underlies within the BTC or Ethereum blockchain for these types of applications. It would be very interesting to see how our future would be if this becomes successful on cars. Autonomous, self-driving cars with blockchain might be the next big thing towards helping improve our society.

I believe that there would be some sort of crowdfund that would help third world countries get access to this technology. 



Yes. It would require the approval of the government for sure, before it becomes widely used and accepted as a means of self-autonomous transportation. The effectiveness and security that the blockchain provides, would makes this revolutionary and perhaps governments would use this for their own benefit. In the future, there could exist the possibility of jobs paying you in digital currencies, where physical fiat currency would no longer exist, thus serving as a medium of exchange between you and your car, by depositing that digital token or currency within the car's wallet.

If anonymity is a concern you will never be able to get it by paying a service that requires your physical presence to be delivered to you, even if you pay with mixed coins since it is very likely those cars will have cameras and then the address you use to pay for the ride will be linked to you.

I don't really get the concept but if it is going to operate like a taxi which is pre fueled for us to drive around and pay Bitcoin then it is going to make life easier for us and that will also be safe.