We've all been hearing about the possibility of self driving cars for a while. But due many technical complications, it's always felt far away from reality.
One complication plaguing the industry is verifying a car's positional data relative to other objects, which MUST be accurate and secure.
A solution to solve the accuracy problem is embed sensors in every self driving car as well as traffic posts positioned alongside main roads.
Cars would then be able to drive around communicating in real time with other cars and traffic posts in order to determine where they are on the road, how far other cars are from them and how fast they are driving.
The traffic post system would also be able to coordinate and optimize traffic flow based on the amount of cars driving on the road.
Pretty dope, I know.
However, securing the positional data as it's being communicated in real time has been a constant struggle.
If the positional data can be tampered with, it could make cars crash into each other which might be cool for a Michael Bay film, but not in real life.
Now, with help from one of my favorite cryptocurrencies IOTA, that struggle is no more!
IOTA, a cryptocurrency built using DAG (directed acyclic graph) technology instead of blockchain technology was developed to support the machine-to-machine economy.
- Smart cars talking to fuel stations
- Wind turbines talking to power grids
- Toasters talking to blenders....
The sky is the limit!
Three specific features of IOTA have solidified this model
- Immutable data storage
- Feeless
- High TPS (transactions per second)
Similar to blockchain, data stored on a DAG is immutable, meaning once the positional data is verified and recorded, it cannot be altered.
Feeless transactions are critical because the sensors have to constantly be talking back and forth in order to keep positional data as accurate in real time as possible.
Even the smallest transaction fee would break the economics of this model.
High TPS because data would be logged at multiple sensors all over at the same time.
In fact, in this model each sensor would be a dedicated IOTA node participating in the validation of nearby positional data which is more decentralized than any blockchain developed to date.
Check out this 3 minute clip showing how its all pulled together!
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