Different Cars, Same Radio Presets: Daimler Blockchain Venture Lets Settings Follow Users

A new blockchain-enabled mobility platform from Mercedes-parent Daimler will kick off with a product that lets users' in-car settings follow them to other vehicles.

• Announced Thursday, Daimler is building the platform in partnership with Ontology, an open-source blockchain specializing in data and digital identity.
• The first product to emerge out of the partnership, "Welcome Home," will be demonstrated at Dalmier’s virtual live event at the Startup Autobahn event today and is built to service users who’d like to transfer preferences from one auto to another.
• “Preferences in a car are settings such as lighting, the seat, the music players,” said Gloria Wu, chief of Global Ecosystem Partnerships at Ontology. She also said a user, “could basically use a ‘Welcome Home’ application to access another car rental service provider within the app without having to do all the registration.”
• The platform built under the Daimler and Ontology partnership would allow a user to both port identification information and in-car preferences from one region to the other, given that the rental service or leasing agent is registered with the platform.
• The statement added that the ‘Welcome Home’ solution is the first product on the MoveX platform. Being built in partnership by the Daimler Mobility AG Blockchain Factory and Ontology, the MoveX platform is targeted at solving barriers to adoption around “user roaming, bundling, and sharing.”
• “‘Welcome Home’ combines mobility with social networking,” said Harry Behrens, head of Blockchain Factory at Daimler Mobility, in the emailed statement. The statement also said that the platform is not limited to in-car experiences and can also include smart devices.
• “What did you eat, what kind of itineraries you had, you can save it to one of your profiles, and share it with a friend, assuming that she's also using ‘Welcome Home,’” Wu said.
• She added that following the demonstration on Thursday, the platform is targeting a release to potential business partners and potential operators in October.