Paid by the pothole

We all know driving’s expensive. Whether it’s road tax, parking fees or simply topping up at the petrol station, the cost of motoring can soon build up.

But thanks to the latest innovations in car technology, you could soon find yourself getting paid to drive – simply by letting your car report potholes and traffic jams as you go.

The system will then use these digital payments to automatically pay for on-road charges, such as parking fees, road tolls, and roadside electric charging points.

Digital currency

The new connected car tech is currently being developed by Jaguar Land Rover and would use the digital currency IOTA cryptocurrency to pay drivers as part of the scheme.

It’s envisaged motorists would receive payments into the Smart Wallet system when in-car sensors report heavy traffic or particularly bad road surfaces.

This information would then be sent to local authorities and used to inform other motorists using in-car navigation systems about roads that they should avoid.

The cryptocurrency could then be used to pay tolls or parking fees or even to make high-street purchases if the Smart Wallet system was connected to other digital payment options.

The technology is currently involved in trials at the manufacturer’s engineering centre in Shannon, Ireland, being tested in both the Jaguar F-Pace and the Range Rover Velar.

Transformative technology

Russell Vickers, Software Architect at Jaguar Land Rover said these transformative technologies will turn your Jaguar or Land Rover into a third space in addition to the home and office.

“In the future an autonomous car could drive itself to a charging station, recharge and pay, while its owner could choose to participate in the sharing economy – earning rewards from sharing useful data such as warning other cars of traffic jams.” he said.

Holger Köther, director of partnerships at the IOTA Foundation, said the company’s distributed ledger technology is perfectly suited to machine-to-machine payments, such as for “smart charging, parking and tolls, in addition to creating opportunities for drivers to earn their own digital currency.”

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