Jaguar Land Rover drivers will soon earn cryptocurrency while driving

Jaguar Land Rover, UK’s largest automotive manufacturer has partnered with the IOTA Foundation to harness ‘distributed ledger’ technologies that will allow its drivers to earn their own digital currency. JLR is working with the IOTA Foundation to develop "smart wallet" technology that will let drivers of its cars earn the cryptocurrency and make payments on the move by sharing data such as traffic congestion or potholes to navigation providers or local authorities.

The IOTA Foundation wrote in a blog post that ‘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. Drivers can also top-up the ‘Smart Wallet’ using conventional payment methods.

“The connected car technologies we are developing will be transformative and truly turn your 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," Russell Vickers, Jaguar Land Rover Software Architect commented.

Image Credit: Pixabay

Moreover,  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 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. 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," said Holger Köther, director of partnerships, IOTA Foundation.

Image Credit: Flickr/ jaguarmena

The autonomous, connected and shared mobility technology is being trialled at the new Jaguar Land Rover software engineering base in Shannon. With the Irish Development Agency's support, the Shannon team is also developing the next generation of electrical architecture as well as exploring advanced driver assistance systems features for future vehicles, the post added.