Accounting and consulting firm EY, part of Ernst & Young Global Ltd., is launching a blockchain-based system that will allow both companies and groups of individuals to more easily share ownership of vehicles and access to cars and trucks.
At its heart, blockchain is a distributed decentralized database technology that maintains a growing list of transactions, validates their legitimacy, and ensures their permanence. This technology has the potential to record vehicle ownership, log the use of vehicles, and distribute insurance costs and other transactions.
EY plans to deploy the system — called Tesseract — in a test with an unnamed partner within the next quarter, EY partner John Simlett said in a published report late last month.
Ernst & Young declined to comment but said it will be able to speak “substantively” around this issue in October at the 2017 Auto Finance Summit.
But this new dedicated-automotive blockchain is not EY’s first foray into the specific technology sphere. EY previously launched EY Ops Chain in April 2017, a set of applications and services aimed at helping organizations commercialize the use of blockchain technology across the enterprise. Using EY Ops Chain, companies can simplify supply-chain management and seamlessly integrate digital contracts, shared inventory and logistics information, pricing, and invoicing and payments, the company said in a statement at the time.
“Blockchain has the potential to revolutionize transactions across industries,” Jonathan Rees, partner in advisory services at Ernst & Young, wrote in a website post. “This is especially true of transactions that require multiple authentications and verifications, contracts, and any type of record verification. Companies can use blockchain to track the movement of assets throughout their supply chains, coordinate their back-end operations, or electronically initiate and enforce contracts.”
Overall this new blockchain represents a potential opportunity to further explore the role of the technology within auto finance, and bring it from infancy to maturity. Blockchain has already shown promise in combatting auto lending fraud, improving fleet management, increasing the speed and security of transactions, and — in the future — allowing cars to autonomously finance themselves. OEMs are already investing in the technology, including Daimler AG, Toyota, and Mahindra & Mahindra.
For more content like this, check out the 17th annual Auto Finance Summit, which will take place on Oct. 25-27 at the Wynn Las Vegas. To learn more about this year’s event — or to register — visit the Summit’s homepage here.
