University of Nevada, Reno teams up with blockchain startup Filament on smart city mobility project

The University of Nevada, Reno’s Center for Applied Research (NCAR) has partnered with blockchain IoT startup Filament to collaborate on a smart city mobility initiative.

The entities will work together to develop a new standard based on blockchain IoT (Internet of things) technology for attested data integrity between autonomous vehicles and road infrastructure. The objective is to improve safety and communication between autonomous connected vehicles.

The university’s Intelligent Mobility initiative tests synchronized mobility concepts in complex and real-world urban, suburban and rural environments.

According to the press release, the university will start simulated testing of Filament’s Blocklet technology and plans to soon integrate the technology into both an autonomous vehicle and the sensor infrastructure placed along defined routes. The technology will deliver a trustworthy record of events, enabling attested data exchange via blockchain transactions.

Filament’s Blocklet products provide blockchain native tools and technology for enterprises and industrial corporations, enabling them to securely process and record transactions directly from IoT devices, secure RFID tags, vehicles, manufacturing equipment and other connected machines.

Allison Clift-Jennings, CEO of Filament, explained that the university’s test vehicles will accept only Blocklet-attested data transmissions, which would protect them from potential bad actors or man-in-the-middle attacks.

“And with the data recorded on a blockchain, the shared root of trust is established for transparent exchange and transactions,” she added.

The project partners expect to complete a vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I, also known as V2X) communication project demonstrating the security of data sent to-and-from autonomous vehicles and street-side infrastructure using blockchain technology in the first half of 2019.