The mobility industry is on the verge of change. The private car — usually 90% of the time unused — soon will no longer be the standard mean of transport. Technological developments such as connectivity, autonomous driving and the spread of mobile internet use, as well as the growing awareness on sustainability are calling the ownership of one’s private car into question — especially among the younger generation. Instead of choosing a specific mode of transport, the focus is on the user experience. Travellers want to get from A to B as quickly and comfortably as possible, using a wide variety of means of transport. Whether car, e-scooter, public transport or bicycle — in the age of multimodality, users choose the mean of transport that is most suitable for their specific situation. The flexible change of different transport modes is made increasingly possible by sharing and rental models from various providers, controlled via apps.

Especially international platforms such as Uber are able to meet the expectations of users for a comfortable user experience. But central platforms always mean dependency. When cooperating with a central platform, transport providers face the risk of becoming dependent on an actor who simultaneously gains market dominance with every transaction carried out. On the other hand, users want to take advantage of the convenience of multimodal travel without disclosing their personal data to an indefinite number of providers.

The Mobility Blockchain Platform

Tackling the issues of user experience, competition between urban mobility providers and data sovereignty, the Mobility Blockchain Platform was initiated by Daimler Mobility AG (Daimler Financial Services) Blockchain Factory. It will shape the future of urban mobility by providing a platform to use mobility services of various providers with a single user identity and with only one click. The whole platform is built with the core concepts of decentralization, openness and neutrality in mind, which can be guaranteed by using the business Blockchain evan.network as technological basis.

That means:

• no single company shall be able to dominate the platform
• users manage their own data self-determined
• the platform can be used by all mobility providers and services
• all components are open source and use open protocols

Within the recent months a minimum viable ecosystem was built to realize one specific use case as a first step: one-click rental of cars. It allows users to identify themselves unequivocally, rent a desired vehicle with just one click and automatically process the payment of the rent. 

Read the full article here