The promise of free tolls is sure to bring drivers running, with new tech flagged by the Jaguar Land Rover group.
Drivers will be able to earn cryptocurrency and make payments on the move with innovative connected car services being tested.
Using ‘Smart Wallet’ technology, owners will be able to earn credits by enabling their cars to automatically report useful road condition data such as traffic congestion or potholes to navigation providers or local authorities.
These for rewards can be redeemed for such things as coffee, or conveniently used to automatically pay tolls, parking fees and for smart charging electric vehicles.
‘Smart Wallet’ removes the need for drivers to hunt for loose change or sign up to multiple accounts to pay for a variety of everyday services.
It uses the latest cryptocurrency technology and Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with the IOTA Foundation to harness ‘distributed ledger’ technologies to make and receive these payments.
Unlike similar systems, it requires no transaction fee to operate and over time transactions will get faster across the entire network — forecast to include some 75 billion connected devices by 2025.
The advanced connected technology is being trialled at the new Jaguar Land Rover software engineering base in Shannon, Republic of Ireland, where engineers have already equipped several vehicles, including the Jaguar F-PACE and Range Rover Velar, with ‘Smart Wallet’ functionality.
Russell Vickers, Jaguar Land Rover Software Architect, said the connected car technologies being developed will be transformative and truly turn a Jaguar or Land Rover into a third space, in addition to your home or office.
“In the future an autonomous car could drive itself to a charging station, recharge and pay, while its owner could choose to participate in the sharing economy – earning rewards from sharing useful data such as warning other cars of traffic jams,” he said.
Holger Köther, director of partnerships, IOTA Foundation, said: “Our distributed ledger technology is perfectly suited to enable machine-to-machine payments for smart charging, parking and tolls, in addition to creating opportunities for drivers to earn their own digital currency.”
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