Automotive Giant Ford Wins Patent for Crypto-based Car-to-Car Transactions

While many of us would have often heard of automobile companies working on the blockchain technology, the latest report shows that U.S-based automotive giant Ford has been awarded a new patent that talks about the use of cryptocurrencies by vehicles in order to communicate with each other and reduce the on-road traffic congestion.

On Tuesday, the U.S Patent and Trademark Office awarded the patent named “Vehicle-to-vehicle cooperation to marshal traffic” to Ford Global Technologies, LLC. The patent talks about several ways to reduce traffic congestion through a “cooperative adaptive cruise control” which would automatically manage the acceleration and deceleration during high-traffic conditions.

The document further details a "Cooperatively Managed Merge and Pass (CMMP) system” wherein the vehicle can monitor, record and evaluate the driving behavior in a collective manner along with other participating vehicles.

The patent application explains that "This system would temporarily allow for particular cooperative vehicles (sometimes referred to as 'consumer vehicles') to drive at higher speeds in less-occupied lanes of traffic and also to merge and pass freely when needed. Other participating cooperative vehicles (sometimes referred to as 'merchant vehicles') voluntarily occupy slower lanes of traffic to [allow] the consumer vehicle to merge into their lanes and pass as needed.”

The CMMP is a token-based system that can function within its own ecosystem as well as on the roads. It is a car-to-car communication platform powered by the GPS technology and allows cars to communicate with each other regarding the traffic conditions. The patent also explains how the CMMP tokens can be used to facilitate messages between vehicles.

"The CMMP system operates with individual token-based transactions, where the merchant vehicles and the consumers' vehicles agree to trade units of cryptocurrency (sometimes referred to as 'CMMP tokens'). The CMMP tokens are used to validate and authorize a transaction in which, at consumer vehicles' request, the merchant vehicles either occupy slower lanes of traffic themselves, or allow the consumer vehicle to merge into their own lane and pass as necessary.”

The Merchant vehicles will thus be rewarded with the CMMP tokens for giving the consumer the right to the path. This will be in the form of on-road-credit within the proposed system. The patent document explains: "For example, a driver of a consumer vehicle which is running late for an appointment may request to pass any participating merchant vehicles for a duration of 10 minutes on a particular road or highway for 60 CMMP tokens, at a rate of 10 seconds preferential access per token.”

With Ford being at the forefront of the new technological revolution of self-driving cars, this cryptocurrency patent can further help optimize on-road traffic conditions. The automotive giant is also said to be working with the blockchain technology and hiring people for the same.