Blockchain based Transportation

Blockchain in the transportation sector is mainly used in these four categories such as, Mobility as a Service (MaaS), Freight and Logistics, Unmanned Aircraft Systems (UAS), Data Sharing and Collaborative Digital Transport Engineering (CDTE). This altogether gives rise to the era of Connected Mobility. In Blockchain, all participants share the same relevant infrastructure information. In concrete terms, this means that all vehicles can communicate with each other via smart contracts and with the track elements such as signals, points or level crossings. This simplifies the infrastructure and the availability of the entire system which could minimise traffic congestion and smoothens the travelling experience.

The vehicles involved within this Connected Mobility ecosystem can choose their own routes, lock them and release them again. This shall happen without a central control centre and yet without a conflict. The state of the infrastructure elements is recorded in a tamper-proof, transparent general ledger and is constantly updated. Conceptually, Blockchain can be used for all other transactions for example, for checking the driver’s license and driver authorization and billing the infrastructure. As of now, the technology is in experimental state where potential use cases are being developed and tested in full manner in many projects all over the world.

Along with self-driving and autonomous vehicles, vehicle-to-infrastructure projects have more potential to make sidewalks and streets safer in the long term. The connected vehicle environment if developed and executed will help to make traffic signals obsolete. The infrastructure to test this communications platform that allows cars to communicate with other vehicles, traffic lights, and even crosswalks. The communications system will send vehicle-to-vehicle safety messages to drivers and collect non-personally-identifiable data into the decentralised distributed server. This would capture, relate, store, and respond to data generated by the communications infrastructure.

The ability of blockchain networks to provide a verifiable record of actions and violations, coupled with the capabilities of Internet of Things (IoT) paradigms is sufficient enough to make the roads and transportation safer and enjoyable for its users.

By Prateek Bebortha
Analyst, SAATRA Capital Advisory LLP