Ford will use cryptocurrency technology for the vehicle communication system
The United States Patent and Trademark Office has published a document granting Ford Global Technologies, LLC, the patent 9,928,746 for "Apparatus and methods" designed to facilitate "cooperation between vehicles to coordinate traffic."
The expected utility of the new technology is the relief of traffic congestion through the use of communication between vehicles, to facilitate cooperative coordination between "platoons" of the same.
The patent states that Ford disclosed an example of the technology in the form of a "vehicle-to-vehicle communication module and an example of cooperative adaptive cruise control module".
The document states that the "adaptive cooperative cruise control module determines the location of a traffic stream", and also "coordinates with other cooperative vehicles to form a standard vehicle platoon", with the cooperative module "coordinating with other cooperative vehicles. to move the platoon formed through the traffic stream at a constant speed ".
Facilitate communications between transports
The document describes a "Cooperatively Managed Fusion and Approval System (CMMP)", which uses cryptocurrency technology to facilitate communications between vehicles.
The patent states that the CMMP system operates with individual transactions based on tokens, where merchant vehicles and consumer vehicles agree to exchange cryptocurrency units (...) called 'CMMP tokens' (...)
The CMMP system makes it easier for certain drivers to access less congested lanes.
Drivers with cooperative vehicles may choose to participate in the system in which driving behavior is monitored, recorded and evaluated collectively by themselves and other participating vehicles. "
In practice, "this system would temporarily allow certain cooperative vehicles (sometimes called 'consumer vehicles') to drive at higher speeds in less busy traffic lanes and also to integrate or pass freely when necessary.
Other participating cooperative vehicles (sometimes called "merchant vehicles") voluntarily occupy slower lanes of traffic to make it easier for the consumer vehicle to integrate into their lanes and pass as needed (...)
CMMP tokens are used to validate and authorize a transaction in which, at the request of a consumer vehicle, merchant vehicles either occupy slower traffic lanes, or allow the consumer vehicle to integrate into its own lane and pass if required.Participating merchant vehicles earn CMMP chips from the consumer's vehicle. "
CMMP Tokens as a credit system between vehicles
In certain cases, Ford intends for the CMMP tokens to also function as a credit system with respect to the allocation of high-speed lanes.
The patent document states that in some examples, the time allocated to the request of the consumer's vehicle is based on the number of CMMP chips chosen by said vehicle to be spent at that particular time.
For example, a driver of a consumer vehicle that is late for an appointment can request the passage to any participating merchant vehicle for a duration of 10 minutes on a particular road, or highway, for 60 CMMP tokens, at a rate of 10 seconds. of preferential access by token.