Vehicle Registration Use-Case

Here’s a high-level description of a US vehicle licensing and registration use-case.  I’d like some feedback on the concept…

A State passes a Law that mandates a specific permissioned Blockchain be used as the official authority for the State’s Vehicle registration system that tracks vehicles registered in the State and compliance with its rules and regulations for ownership, transfer of title, proof of insurance, proof of inspection, and proof of emissions.

Such a system would eliminate the need for those archaic paper-based artifacts such as vehicle Title, registration, and proof of insurance, and would even eliminate the need for license plates because all of that information would be instantly available on the blockchain based on the Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), which could be represented as a RFID, a barcode, or a QRcode.

It would take a relatively simple smart contract with some basic methods like: add_vehicle, offer_vehicle, buy_vehicle, register_vehicle, insure_vehicle, inspect_vehicle, inspect_vehicle_emmissions, and so on.  Various market participants would be authorized to run only certain methods.  For example, as a citizen of the State anyone could “offer their vehicle” for sale, give it a price, and perhaps even send it to a specific individual; another citizen could “buy the vehicle” based on the terms of the “offer.” This new owner could purchase the required insurance and once paid the insurance company would invoke the “insure vehicle” method. Once the vehicle is insured, the motor vehicle administration could invoke the “register vehicle” method and the owner is read to roll, literally!

The entire process of offering, buying, insuring and registering a vehicle could be done with two mobile phones in a parking lot with the happy buyer driving off into the sunset in his newly purchased ride fully titled, insured and registered to the new owner.  Add a little crypto-currency and the payment is fully transferred as well.

And the process for periodic inspections for general road-worthiness and emissions compliance would be similar. The owner brings the vehicle in for an inspection and the registered inspector issues the “inspect vehicle” method to record the results. Indeed, such a process would facilitate automated inspections in the future.

Simple data mining of the blockchain by the State would immediately identify any vehicles that are out of compliance; that is without Insurance or an up-to-date inspection.  And when your are eventually pulled over for exceeding the speed limit, as you inevitably will, the Police Officer need not ask for your registration or proof of insurance because a quick scan of the VIN will immediately provide that information, which eliminates those annoying “process” violations you can get for not having your “papers” handy.

Come to think of it, a “vehicle_stolen” method might be very useful, too!

I’m not sure how to handle the situation when a vehicle is sold to someone in another State and I’m sure there are other short-comings and things I’ve missed, but I’d be interested in any feedback anyone would like to provide.

And thanks for listening!