General Motors Look to Patent Blockchain-Based Map Tracking Solution

According to a Forbes article published on April 3, 2020, U.S.-based automobiles giant, General Motors (GM) has put forward an application to the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office for a “decentralized distributed map using blockchain.”

GM Seeks to Leverage Blockchain

American automobiles behemoth GM recently filed an application with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office to leverage distributed ledger technology (DLT) to solve issues pertaining to the dynamic feedback of mapping around a car.

At present, many motor vehicles – including the ones that are autonomous in nature – use some type of navigation system that provides detailed maps to the driver of the vehicle the geographic location of the vehicle and directions guiding them to the destination.

The caveat with the above issue is that cost of keeping these mapping systems dynamic is huge currently. GM, however, believes that this is exactly where blockchain technology could come handy.

Per the report, sensors will be used to evaluate and characterize the area around the motor vehicle. Later, a discrepancy detector would be used to help identify differences in the surroundings compared to a known navigation map based on information received from one or more sensors. Finally, the differences thus recorded will then be sent over to a blockchain map network.

The patent’s abstract reads in part:

“A system for updating a distributed navigation map for a motor vehicle includes one or more sensors that evaluate and characterizes a surrounding around the motor vehicle and a discrepancy detector that identifies differences in the surrounding compared to a known navigation map based on information received from the one or more sensors. The differences are transmitted to a blockchain map network.”

Blockchain and the Vehicle Industry

It hardly comes as a surprise that the vehicle industry has developed such an affinity toward DLT due to the latter’s unrivaled characteristics that include immutability, and transparency, among others.

BTCManager reported in October last year how various automobile firms including the likes of Ford, GM, and BMW had come together to explore new and disruptive ways to manufacture cars and diversify revenue streams.

On a more recent note, major car manufacturer BMW announced its plans to roll out its blockchain-enabled supply chain solutions.