IOTA in the mobility sector: a complete rundown
Tags: Cryptocurrency, Mobility, Distributed Ledgers, Iota, Blockchain

Vehicle manufacturers

Volkswagen AG

Early bits of information in mid-2017 [source] suggested a connection between IOTA and Volkswagen, yet at that time it was “only” Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS). Rumours were further fuelled by Harm van den Brink (IF) showcasing images of Volkswagen’s IOTA-based CarPass application during an IOTA presentation in December 2017 [video].

Volkswagen’s Chief Digital Officer Johann Jungwirth appearing alongside IOTA co-founder Dominik Schiener in one of Germany’s morning shows [video] in late 2017 added further to the speculation of an undisclosed formal cooperation between Volkswagen and IOTA.

In early 2018, Volkswagen’s Jungwirth announced a cooperation during a presentation [video] at BOSCH Connected World 2018. At that time, IOTA was not just the first DLT ever being introduced by the management of a global vehicle manufacturer, coincidentally it was also the world’s largest one that did it.

Jungwirth personally showed further personal involvement by sharing details of an IOTA-based proof-of-concept, developed by Volkswagen [source] and even served for some time on the Supervisory Board of the IOTA Foundation [source] during its initial setup, shortly after its formal recognition by the german government.

In April 2018, in an interview by BOSCH with Benjamin Sinram, Volkswagen’s Head of Blockchain, Sinram describes an IOTA-based prototype “best described as a wallet that enables machines to form a network of service providers […] made up of production machines, transport equipment, or other devices such as sensors […] the user is then presented with a price […] Once an order has been issued, the interface executes an IOTA transaction, and the respective machines simultaneously receive the command to start production.”

In mid-2018, the cooperation continued with Volkswagen inviting IOTA to the worlds largest motor show “Internationale Automobil-Ausstellung (IAA)”, at which IOTA already held a presentation [source] in the previous year [video].

In 2018 though, IOTA was the first, and until today, only distributed ledger technology ever being presented by a vehicle manufacturer itself.

At the 2018 motor show, Volkswagen showcased a large-scale, futuristic IOTA-based proof-of-concept, detailing human-autonomous vehicle interactions and cryptocurrency settlements for consumed services [source].

In a following IAA panel discussion to which IOTA was invited, Volkswagen’s Head of Blockchain Research Benjamin Sinram announced an IOTA-based product to be released „as early as 2019“ [video]. He repeated his statement two weeks later during a panel discussion at a technology conference in Israel [source]. So far, the announced product hasn’t been released by Volkswagen.

In July 2018, Dr. Klaus Schaaf, a 30+ year Volkswagen veteran in research, digitalisation and edge technologies [source], officially joined the IOTA Foundation [source] as a second Volkswagen member, serving in an official capacity.

Later, in July 2018, Volkswagen released a video [source] explaining its efforts in regard to distributed ledger technologies, showing several IOTA-based use-cases, while also mentioning Ethereum and Hyperledger. The same applies to an article on the Volkswagen website dubbed “Putting the blockchain on the road” [source], published in August 2018.

In November 2018, the Volkswagen Financial Services (VWFS) “Startups Pitch Day” invited Janna Zielinski (IF) to participate as a juror [source].

Daimler AG/Mercedes Benz

In late 2017, Mercedes Benz showed first (known) interest in IOTA through its subsidiary Daimler Fleetboard by inviting IOTA to a large scale hackathon to develop ideas surrounding mobility and supply chain solutions [source] based on distributed ledger technology.

In early 2018, Mercedes Benz representatives participated and reported from a StartupAutobahn meetup [source], an accelerator program for which IOTA was one of the 100 globally selected entrants.

In mid-2018, a manager of Den Norske Bank (DNB), Norways largest bank, mentioned in an interview that he recently met with representatives from Mercedes and the IOTA Foundation [source].

While Mercedes was rumoured to participate in the industry specific Blockchain Mobility Hackathon, it eventually didn’t [source]. Since early 2018, various reports suggested that Mercedes is developing its own, non-interoperable blockchain solution. In June 2019 Mercedes released a statement accounting to a first prototype of a closed-source solution [source].

BMW AG, BMW Group

BMW was one of the key participants in the Blockchain Mobility Hackathon [source], organised by the IOTA Foundation in mid-2018, bringing the majority of german vehicle manufactures and mobility service providers together for collaborative participation. Dominik Pietsch, a BMW manager states in a video taken at the event that “collaboration and competition is the future of mobility” [video], embracing the collaborative hackathon with competitors. During the event, BMW reported from the hackathon through its main Twitter account [source] and congratulated its winners [source] afterwards.

Also in July 2018, Dirk Hilgenberg, “Senior Vice President Production System, Technical Planning, Tool Shop, Plant Construction” at the BMW Group visited [source] the RWTH Aachen Campus (Industrial IOTA Lab, IILA) for a presentation of its IOTA-based industrial “Internet-of-Production” demonstrator [video], securing an audit trail for component data on the IOTA ledger [source], as well as paying machines directly for their work or associated data [source].

In January 2019, BMW published a job offer for someone willing to write their thesis on “blockchain for logistics and compare different projects such as Hyperledger, Ethereum, and IOTA”.[source].

In February 2019, Alexander Renz (IF) and Klaus Schaaf (IF) were invited [source] to the MOBI Grand Challenge as judges to the BMW Headquarters [source] in Munich, Germany.

In February 2019, Catherine Thomas from Outlier Ventures, an early IOTA investor [source], attended a meeting at the global BMW IT center (BMW ITZ) in Munich in which IOTA is presented to be one of the three DLT’s on the roadmap of the BMW headquarter [source].

The presentation, held by Kai Demtröder “Vice President Connected Vehicle, Digital Backend, Big Data”, lists IOTA is in the category “IoT, Data and AI”, while the other two DLT’s, Ethereum and Hyperledger, are listed for “Mobility, Customer & Vehicle” and “Logistics & Manufacturing”, respectively [source].

Also in February 2019, students of the Fraunhofer Blockchain Lab presented their IOTA MAM-based platooning proof-of-concept [source] during the MOBI Grand Challenge and win the third place [source] in the finals at the BMW headquarters [source].

In May 2019 images of another BMW presentation are shared by Alexy Khrabrov, Chief Community Manager of the Trusted Internet of Things Alliance, of which IOTA is one of the 29 founding members [source] and to which BMW also has relations [source].

The shared images of a presentation of Dr. Andre Luckow, Head of Blockchain and Natural Language at the BMW AG, again tagged with the location of the BMW IT center of the BMW headquarters in Munich (BMW ITZ) list IOTA by name as one of the three DLT’s on the blockchain roadmap of the BMW headquarter [source].

Interestingly, the same presentation slides were used by an BMW employee from a Singapore BMW subsidiary, invited to present at the VeChain Summit 2019, widely lauded as proof of an official partnership between BMW and VeChain, while the final slide of the presentation showing the three DLT’s that are on BMW’s roadmap (Ethereum, Hyperledger, IOTA) were omitted [video].

AUDI AG

The first credible account of AUDI showing interest in IOTA came from a manager of Den Norske Bank (DNB), Norways largest bank, mentioning a meeting of IOTA, AUDI and several other vehicle manufacturers [source] in mid-2018 in Berlin, Germany.

A few weeks later, AUDI participated [source] in an industry-specific Blockchain Mobility Hackathon, organised by the IOTA Foundation, bringing the majority of german vehicle manufactures and mobility service providers together for collaborative development.

Following in July 2018, AUDI and the IOTA Foundation unveiled the conclusion of a 5-months collaboration [source] in which they researched and developed new mobility ecosystem solutions enabled by the IOTA protocol.

An AUDI manager summarised the collaboration as following: “The last five months we had a great time […] working in cross-functional teams with IOTA on a new project. With the focus on enabling trust for the user in E-mobility we pushed a new use case to reality.” [source]

Jaguar Land Rover

In April 2019, Jaguar Land Rover published an article stating its partnership with the IOTA Foundation [source] and intention to integrate “smart wallets” in their vehicles, enabling owners to “earn credits by enabling their cars to automatically report useful data”. In the Jaguar Land Rover Shannon office in Ireland, Jaguar Land Rover engineers reportedly have successfully equipped several vehicles with wallets and piloted integrations like automated toll-booth payments [source].

In May 2019, Nick Rogers, Executive Director at Jaguar Land Rover presented at BOSCH Connected World 2019 on the topic of “Economy of Things” [source], including IOTA payments for in-vehicle rewards [source] and other payments [source].

Groupe Renault

In February 2019, Groupe Renault, together with industry co-sponsors Engie Lab Crigen, Birdz (Veolia), Sopra Steria, Tech Mahindra, Future State CoFoundery, the City of Austin and the IOTA Foundation hosted a contest [source] to encourage the development of innovative Smart City solutions, leveraging IOTA’s distributed ledger technology. The contest yielded 346 participants and 28 submissions [source].

Porsche AG

In February 2018, Porsche representatives were present at an IOTA meetup for StartupAutobahn [source], followed by an official statement of Porsche that it is looking forward to the collaboration With IOTA [source].

In April 2018, Porsche representatives supposedly joined a presentation of Samuel Reid (IF) at the Google Campus in Spain [source]. During an interview later that month, Eric Hop (IF) again mentioned IOTA’s relations to Porsche [source].

In May 2018, Porsche Labs tweets about a meeting with Alisa Maas (IF) [source] but removes the tweet after speculation about a formal partnership arises [source].

Later in May 2018, a manager of Den Norske Bank (DNB), Norways largest bank, mentions in an interview that he recently met with representatives from Porsche, several other automotive manufactures and the IOTA Foundation in Berlin [source].

Deutsche Bahn

In February 2018, a reputable german business magazine reports on IOTA working with Deutsche Bahn on a data marketplace [source].

In June 2018, a tweet from Regine Haschka-Helmer (IF) shows Dominik Schiener (IF) and the (assumed) press secretary of Deutsche Bahn posing together at the world’s largest electronics fair, Cebit 2018, referencing a “meeting” and announcing “more to come” [source, deleted].

In July 2018, Deutsche Bahn participates as one of the key participants in the Blockchain Mobility Hackathon [source], organised by the IOTA Foundation, bringing the majority of german vehicle manufactures and mobility service providers together for collaborative development.

In October 2018, Deutsche Bahn invited Regine Haschka-Helmer (IF) as speaker to its “2nd Blockchain Public Day” [source].

In January 2019, Deutsche Bahn published a job ad for a software engineer with experience in Hyperledger and IOTA [source].

Ford Motor Company

In May 2019, representatives from Ford Germany visited [source] the RWTH Aachen Campus (Industrial IOTA Lab, IILA) for a presentation of its IOTA-based industrial “Internet-of-Production” demonstrator [video], securing an audit trail for component data on the IOTA ledger [source], as well as paying machines directly for their work or data [source].