Blockchain initiative to fight fraud in used cars

The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) recently announced that it had founded a new initiative. This is to act against fraud in the used car sector with the support of a blockchain technology. Among others, Ford and BMW are part of the party.

On January 19, 2021, MOBI published a press release announcing the initiative

First and foremost, it is about the recurring problem of resetting the odometer of used cars on the part of the seller. These falsify the distance already covered in order to drive up the price of the respective vehicle. In order to stop this type of corruption, MOBI is now using blockchain technology and has launched a new vehicle information standard called “VID II”. Ford and BMW lead the VID-II working group. “Birth certificates” are supposed to guarantee an unadulterated insight into the used vehicles.

With vehicle registration in blockchain, previously separate vehicle registration systems between states and countries can be connected via a secure, shared and trustworthy ledger.

So it says in the announcement. Furthermore, the traceability of the maintenance would guarantee buyers and supervisory authorities a higher level of protection with regard to vehicle information. Honda, IBM, Hitachi America and Quantstam also support VID II alongside Ford and BMW.

The automotive industry relies on blockchain

MOBI spoke about the introduction of blockchain technology in the automotive industry for the first time in 2018 . At that time it was about similar topics. BMW, one of the leading companies in the initiative, has also been dealing with the topic of blockchain not just since yesterday. As early as 2019 , the automobile manufacturer explained the advantages and possible areas of application of blockchain technologies to its customers on its website:

When a vehicle is resold at the latest, questions arise: How many kilometers has the car driven? Did it have an accident? And did the previous owner keep the service intervals? Blockchain-based solutions such as VerifyCar promise reliable answers to these questions.

VerifyCar is a company that aims to help buyers better understand the history of used cars. Initiatives such as CarWallet offer similar approaches. As the name suggests, customers can buy a wallet with the help of which it is possible to bill data with so-called smart city systems and thus gain insights into „system-critical traffic solutions“.