Toyota is leveraging Ethereum’s blockchain to establish digital accounts for cars, enhancing their programmability and security. These accounts aim to transform vehicles into service-oriented entities, potentially enabling fully autonomous driving. This initiative is part of Toyota’s Mobility 3.0 vision, which seeks to integrate vehicles with public infrastructure more seamlessly.
Toyota is pushing further into blockchain to revolutionize car management. Imagine each vehicle having its own account on Ethereum, seamlessly connecting to services and users. This forms part of the broader Mobility 3.0 strategy, aiming to integrate cars more closely with public infrastructure. Toyota’s Blockchain Lab is spearheading this effort to manage vehicles like digital accounts through blockchain.
Mobility-Oriented Accounts (MOA), based on Ethereum’s ERC-4337 standard, are central to this initiative. MOA makes cars more programmable, secure, and service-focused, enabling future autonomous driving. This approach envisions cars as semi-public entities, interacting with traffic systems, other vehicles, and pedestrians.
Toyota’s blockchain strategy, introduced in April 2023, supports the idea of cars functioning within public spaces. This vision enhances efficiency and transparency by sharing information broadly through blockchain, allowing cars to be recognized both physically and digitally.
MOA enables cars to act as service entities, linking with users and other systems. Traditionally, storing a private key in the vehicle was risky, as losing the key meant losing the account. Toyota’s use of ERC-4337 mitigates this by separating authentication from key management, ensuring account security even if a key is lost. Additionally, it simplifies car data management by allowing multiple entities—such as owners, users, manufacturers, and government agencies—to approve transactions, enhancing security and accountability.