Blockchain technology for digital vehicle passport

Today, more than ever before, the digitalization process is sweeping across an increasing number of fields, transforming business processes, products, and customer experience, among other aspects. Even in the automotive industry, digitalization has had a significant impact on both production and use. For example, digitalization has enabled the use of advanced sensors, cameras, and software that can allow the implementation of self-driving vehicles, optimize the performance of electric motors in electric vehicles, and let vehicles communicate with each other and with the infrastructure by exchanging data. Although the digitization process is well underway in this sector, there are still some aspects where further digitization could bring greater efficiency, reliability, and sustainability, such as using blockchain technology to facilitate traceability and prevent fraud, digitizing new data types to perform advanced analytics, and developing augmented reality systems to improve the testing phase and customer experience. This chapter aims to provide an overview of how blockchain technology could be used for digital vehicle passport, by analyzing the advantages/disadvantages of this technology, discussing the technical aspects, presenting already-developed solutions, and hypothesizing future developments. In particular, the first part of the chapter will discuss the main aspects of developing a digital passport for vehicles through blockchain technology, analyzing its technical aspects, guidelines, practical applications, advantages, and disadvantages. A digital passport could contain relevant information about a vehicle’s life cycle, such as ownership, maintenance, accidents, mileage, fuel consumption, and overhauls. This information, which would be uploaded to the blockchain, would also benefit from the advantages that this technology offers, such as immutability, reliability, transparency, and data availability. Thus, a digital passport would allow buyers to instantly verify the authenticity and quality of a used vehicle, repair shops to work more efficiently by having access to more accurate vehicle information, insurance companies to offer customized insurance policies based on vehicle data, manufacturers to improve relations with their customers, or more generally, to optimize consumption and thus reduce environmental impact. However, there are drawbacks to the use of digital vehicle passports. Some are related to interoperability and standardization, as the use of certain technologies, such as blockchain, may not be compatible with all existing or future systems. Others are related to security and privacy, as some data may contain sensitive information or even reveal the personal habits of the vehicle user, so access to this data should be limited to authorized users. Among the disadvantages, possible discriminatory issues should be considered, as the digital passport could create disparities between those who have access to this technology and those who do not, or between those who have a vehicle with a digital passport and those who have a vehicle without one. Finally, the digital passport could be based on unverified, incomplete, or inaccurate data, which could adversely affect the quality and reliability of vehicles. Over the years, and especially in the recent past, researchers and developers have proposed various blockchain-based solutions for the implementation of digital vehicle passports, systems based on them, and ways of using them, with the aim of exploiting the advantages, exploring new use cases, and at the same time, finding solutions to any problem that a digital passport might bring. In the second part of this chapter, the state of the art of existing technologies will be reported, and an analysis of proposed solutions will be made, discussing and comparing their main aspects and differences. Finally, some considerations and future perspectives on the issue of digital passports and their impact on the market, society, and the environment will be made.