Guarantee Vehicle Odometer With Blockchain Technology

There are many ongoing research around the world to find crypto and blockchain use case for the automotive industry. The Smart E-Mobility competition challenged teams to leverage advances in cryptography and blockchain to build fast and secure applications for mobility. TRUSTED DATA FROM A CAR: TRUST WORTHY ODOMETER DATA aims to guarantee vehicle odometer through transparency and immutable data with blockchain technology.

Why do we need to guarantee vehicle odometer? Its simple, odometer can easily be manipulated. No not by driving the car in reverse, but by

1. Replacing the Gauge Cluster with one that has a different odometer reading,
2. Hacking the controller that stores odometer data.

But what can one benefit from false odometer data? If we lower the odometer, we increase the resale value of the vehicle. Of course this is illegal, but if it was done how would you know? Another reason for false odometer data is lack of capability when replacing a faulty gauge cluster. Modern cars have digital odometer that can be read and store on a service tool, and then the exact value can be written back to the new gauge cluster. If you visit a new car dealer, this is exactly how its done. New car dealers are require to have proper service tools, but what if the vehicle is not service by the dealer? Not everyone performing car service will have these diagnostic tools. This sounds bad, but its reality.

Designed by prostooleh / Freepik
By leveraging blockchain tech, we don't have to trust the dealer we buy the car from, instead we can verify the odometer on our own. There are different methods to achieve this, the link below will take you to the propose method presented for the Smart E-Mobility competition.

Sources
https://www.trusted-iot.org/smart-mobility-challenge