Electric Mobility + Autonomous Vehicle Technology + X = A low cost, sustainable transport revolution

If you are an advocate for an electric and autonomous vehicle transport future, you have to take digital and cryptocurrency payments seriously.

For most people the ongoing rally in cryptocurrency prices (I’m avoiding using the B word) has been fueled by the irrational exuberance of ‘crypto-vangelists’ who are obsessed with the merits of a digitized, blockchain backed global commerce future.

Up until very recently main stream finance, leave alone other established sectors of the economy, have scoffed at this idea. But increasingly as we shift towards an even deeper, decentralised & digitized way of transacting across the fields of transport and energy, its starting to become very clear that the platforms behind the sensationalised cryptocurrencies are exactly the technology solutions most viable in supporting this. From this perspective, there is after all value and some basis behind the ever increasing crypto valuations.

This shift was no doubt accelerated by Elon Musk’s announcement this month of Tesla’s acquisition of $1.5 billion worth of Bitcoin, and the announcement that the company will start accepting Bitcoin payments from customers purchasing new Tesla models.

For us this is no doubt the start of a further step that will see them and other autonomous vehicle operators of the future rely primarily on digital cryptocurrency platforms for seamless machine-to-machine payments across their fleets, electric vehicle charging infrastructure and other service providers that will become increasingly common alongside the autonomous ride hailing industry that will emerge.

If you look further ‘under the hood’ there is also an emerging field of engineers, digital payments experts and infrastructure financiers working towards build out a decentralised application (‘dApp’) for this kind of autonomous network. In some cases some of the networks emerging extend across vehicle transport networks, delivery drones, last mile delivery pods and some day even autonomous electric planes.

The DAV network is one such initiative building out a blockchain-based transportation platform that will allow vehicles (autonomous cars, trucks, drones, etc) to discover, communicate and transact with each other on a decentralised, global transportation network. The DAV network is one of a field of players building out the ‘internet of transport’.

We have certainly come a long way in the adoption of electric vehicle technology (and there is still a long way to go), but what is clearer is this is only the first derivative in ushering in deeper advances across autonomy, decentralised payments and the foundations of the future internet of transport.

And so in summary: Electric Mobility + Autonomous Vehicle Technology + X = A low cost, sustainable transport revolution

Where, X = A blockchain based, peer-to-peer, cyrptocurrency powered transaction platform.

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ChargeBound is a company dedicated to encouraging UK drivers to go electric. Our mission is to eliminate car passenger emissions in the UK and get us closer to being carbon neutral. To find out more about what we do check out ChargeBound’s website and the solutions we are creating to make a change.

Photo by Austin Distel. Thanks Austin.