Jaguar Land Rover offers car owners to share their driving data with crypto

The smart wallet system is currently being tested in Jaguar Land Rover's new software platform in Shannon, Republic of Ireland, where models including the Jaguar F-PACE and Range Rover Velar have been configured to automatically report. information on the conditions of the road. If the system is implemented, drivers will have the option of not sharing this data, but the company clearly hopes that they will, because they encourage them to use tokens digital.

The data will not just go to Jaguar Land Rover, either. The press release states that "owners earn credits by allowing their cars to automatically report to navigation providers or local authorities useful data on the condition of roads, such as traffic jams or potholes, "although you have precise control over which drivers get the data is not clear.

The company is working with the IOTA Foundation to use its distributed ledger technologies for payments, which do not charge a transaction fee and could therefore be used to automatically pay tolls, parking, coffee and anything that drivers could buy in their car. . They will also be able to complete the total with normal money.

The crypto project is part of Jaguar Land Rover's "Destination Zero" strategy, which aims to ultimately achieve emissions, accidents and zero traffic jams. To this end, shared data would help eliminate congestion and unused emissions by informing satellite navigation systems of areas to avoid and using your car as a kind of giant credit card to clear the toll.

The same strategy will see all Jaguar and Land Rover cars include an electric option by 2020.

Explaining the potential of the smart wallet system, Russell Vickers, software architect at Jaguar's Land Rover, says: "In the future, a standalone car could go to a charging station, recharge and pay, while its owner could choose to participate in the sharing economy – rewards of sharing useful data, such as warning other cars of traffic jams. "

All of this sounds good and positive, but some groups may be worried about the precedent of paying people to give up information. Facebook's recent plan to pay teens $ 20 for smartphone data has caused huge reactions, for example. Will the Jaguar Land Rover project meet the same fate, or will it be received more positively since the traffic data is less personal, remains to be seen if the test is successful.

However, the company would probably convince more people to share with real money rather than the promise of cryptography.