MOBI accelerates new mobility by adding participants and launching key working groups

San Francisco, California, September 20, 2018 – The Mobility Open Blockchain Initiative (MOBI) announces the addition of two new advisors, seven new Partners, ten new Sponsors, and two new Affiliates to the initiative. These new participants will join the already-large mobility ecosystem and will accelerate the development of blockchain-enabled vehicle data and mobility services standards.

MOBI welcomes two new members to its Board of Advisors:
Iliana Oris Valiente is managing director at Accenture and Global Blockchain Innovation Lead. Jim Adler is managing director of Toyota AI Ventures and executive advisor at Toyota Research Institute. Both bring unique perspectives in the applications of Blockchain and related technology to a wide range of issues for mobility and other industries.

“The community is working hard to create a minimum viable ecosystem that aims to standardize blockchain and related technologies to bring transparency and trust to the industry, consumers, and communities, reducing risk of fraud, and reducing frictions and transaction costs in mobility.”, says MOBI’s Chairman and CEO Chris Ballinger. “With the onboarding of new members, we are adding diversified expertise that ranges from components and vehicle check to insurance, technology solutions, and rewards, as well as more focus on collaboration between private and public sector.”

MOBI’s participants announcing today include:

• Partners: Achmea, CarVertical, Denso Diam, Faraday Future, FutureMove, MoveCo, Tesloop
• Sponsors: Chorus Mobility, Constellation Labs, Cube Intelligence, Filament, NXM Labs, Streamr, Xapix, Riddle&Code
• Affiliates: Decentralized Autonomous Vehicles, Sovrin Foundation, World Economic Forum

“Blockchain is a team sport” – Brian Behlendorf (Linux Foundation). Blockchain’s distributed, peer-to-peer nature requires standards and collaboration in order to achieve secure and transparent end-to-end solution for future multi-modal e-mobility solutions. MOBI is introducing Open Innovation techniques to the mobility industry to help the industry innovate and grow in same way these techniques have benefited the technology sector for decades.

MOBI now includes more than 80% of the automakers by volume and has initiated several working groups and committees to achieve its purpose. These working groups and committees include:

The Vehicle Digital Identity & History working group has launched to work on future standards for a Digital Vehicle Identity on the blockchain. Many automakers have already worked on vehicle “digital birth certificates”, “passwords” and other related proof-of-concepts using blockchain technology. Creating standards will ensure interoperability and secure, reliable access to vehicle history and usage data.

The VID working group will set the foundation for all future blockchain-based use cases including usage-based services such as insurance, taxes, car-sharing, and more. It will also be foundational in allowing consumers and other to maintain control over their data among other use cases.

The Core team of this working group is comprised of members from Renault and Ford as well as BMW, Bosch, IBM, and Accenture among others. Sebastien Henot, Manager of Business Innovation at the Renault-Nissan-Mitsubishi Alliance Innovation Lab Silicon Valley, and Alan Gordon, Technical Leader, Software and Computing Research at Ford, are leading the initiative as the working group Chairperson and Vice Chairperson respectively.

The Usage-Based Insurance working group has also launched to establish standards for usage- based insurance services for connected cars, autonomous vehicles, and other IoT devices. It will also be crucial to enable self-certifying technical systems that can become the trusted backbone of mobility solutions and accident settlements in the era of self-driving vehicles – blockchain solutions do provide all the means to help insurances to master that challenge. Aioi USA’s Michael Fischer and Achmea’s Jeroen Bartelse will serve as group Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

MOBI has formed an Economic and Business Model committee to explore how Blockchain, Distributed Ledger, and related technologies create new business and economic models for the new mobility services industry. Chris Ballinger, MOBI Founder, and CEO, will serve as a Chair.

The Intellectual Property, Licensing, and Rights committee is evaluating and establishing the ways the community will handle intellectual property, licensing and property rights whether that is code, written works, or data. David Luce from MOBI and Michael Fischer from Aioi USA will serve as Chair and Vice Chair respectively.

The Tools and Methods committee defines and provides procedures and infrastructures for MOBI community. This committee is formed by people from different backgrounds and experiences, aiming to make MOBI development cycle easy and open. Dr. Liang Kong from Volkswagen Electronic Lab will serve as a Chair.

“Innovation in the area of mobility is relevant to our customers in various sectors. Joining the MOBI-consortium gives us the opportunity to play an active role in shaping the future of mobility. A future that will be created using input from many different parties. For Achmea sharing knowledge through platforms is a preferred way to stimulate strategic innovation“
– Robert Otto, member of the Executive Board of Achmea

“The DAV Foundation is very pleased to be collaborating with MOBI. Transport and mobility on the blockchain is a very big space, and DAV and MOBI can learn a great deal from one another. We’re excited about the future and how we can collectively contribute to the burgeoning mobile economy” – John Frazer, Co-Founder & CCO, DAV Foundation “The entire mobility sector is undergoing a significant transformation and Filament is dedicated to helping its stakeholders navigate new paths being opened up by blockchain technology. We support MOBI’s mission to guide the industry and improve mobility services by promoting standards and accelerating blockchain adoption. Filament is pleased to be a sponsor and we look forward to collaborating with the group to help advance the mobility vertical and the machine economy.”
– Allison Clift-Jennings, CEO, Filament

“Beyond enabling the highest possible level of security for blockchain technology, Riddle&Code will support MOBI in re-defining the future of mobility services. Our highly secure crypto chips and the software that links them to any blockchain can dramatically increase the levels of data security and transparency. We also enable automated settlements based on crypto wallet solutions. With these contributions, we will help the automotive sector to future-proof their solutions – and MOBI is the best forum within which to share know-how about these advanced solutions and the additional business models that will become accessible.”
– Alexander Koppel, CEO, Riddle&Code