Jaguar Land Rover partners with IOTA Foundation to bring cryptocurrency to drivers

British automotive giant Jaguar Land Rover has partnered with the IOTA Foundation to harness distributed ledger technologies (DLTs) and is testing software that will enable drivers to earn cryptocurrency for sharing data.

In an announcement dated April 29, the company said:

“Drivers will be able to earn cryptocurrency and make payments on the move using innovative connected car services being tested by Jaguar Land Rover.”

Jaguar introduced its “smart wallet” technology that will allow owners to earn the IOTA cryptocurrency by enabling their cars to automatically report useful road condition data such as traffic congestion or potholes to navigation providers or local authorities, Reuters reported. These coins could be redeemed for rewards such as coffee, or to automatically pay tolls, parking fees and for smart charging electric vehicles.

“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. We are excited to partner with Jaguar Land Rover in implementing its IOTA-powered car wallet, delivering a major convenience benefit for their customers worldwide,” Holger Köther, Director of Partnerships, IOTA Foundation, said.

Jaguar said that its smart wallet will help eliminate the need for drivers to look for loose change or sign up to multiple accounts to pay for a variety of everyday services. Drivers could top-up the wallet using conventional payment methods.

“Unlike other similar systems, due to its structure, 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,” it said.

The technology is currently being trialed the new Jaguar Land Rover software engineering base in Shannon, Republic of Ireland, where several vehicles, including the Jaguar F-PACE and Range Rover Velar, have been equipped with ‘Smart Wallet’ functionality.

The company said that the project is part of its “Destination Zero” strategy which aims to achieve zero emissions, zero accidents and zero congestion.

“Our Shannon software development centre is advancing the use of cryptocurrency to make people’s lives better, by allowing drivers to safely share data and make payments from their vehicle,” Nick Rogers, Executive Director of Product Engineering, Jaguar Land Rover, said.