BLOCKCHAIN technology – the highly secure digital ledger managed by peer-to-peer networks – underpins EY’s new Tesseract product, an integrated mobility platform.

The new Tesseract platform facilitates fractional vehicle ownership, shared use and seamless multimodal transport – hence the use of blockchain technology – and, says EY, will help lay the groundwork for how autonomous vehicle fleets will be owned as well as providing access to a suite of wide-ranging on-demand mobility services.

Tesseract solves core mobility issues such as how to share vehicle ownership with widespread shared-use and how a multitude of mobility options can be integrated.

EY believes Tesseract can provide a variety of mobility stakeholders – such as OEMs, mobility and transport companies, cities and infrastructure providers – the ability to create and develop new revenue streams while meeting consumers’ demands for shared ownership and a wider range of mobility solutions.

Randy Miller, EY global automotive & transportation leader, commented:

“The future of the automotive and transportation industry will be integrated, on-demand, personalised and autonomous. Tesseract is a groundbreaking, innovative platform that benefits every stakeholder across the mobility ecosystem.

“We want Tesseract to break down barriers to entry for all stakeholders, provide the means for mobility as a service and facilitate a truly integrated ecosystem that puts consumers first in the future mobility marketplace.”

Miller said that Tesseract was able to provide everything from single vehicles to fleets and other transport services. Blockchain technology would log users, trips and vehicles, while transactions would be settled automatically between owners, operators and third-party service providers through a single-source, usage-based payment system.

Interestingly for leasing companies, Miller said that asset ownership would be flexible and could be on a full or fractional share basis.

“Tesseract will allow operators to innovate, commercialise and scale new mobility businesses and revenue models. Vehicle utilisation will increase, reducing wastage and ultimately creating a greener, more sustainable transport world,” he added.

The potential benefits of Tesseract

• New business models and income streams will be created
• Funding of expensive assets such as batteries and charging infrastructure will be easier to facilitate
• Investors, crowd-funders and everyday users will be able to earn money from their investment based on others’ usage of vehicles and individuals who could not previously afford a car will now be able to own a share of a vehicle.

Paul Brody, EY global innovation leader, Blockchain, said:

“The time has come for blockchain to reshape the automotive industry. Using blockchain for automotive services permits true peer-to-peer interactions between owners with minimal infrastructure requirements. Data can be stored permanently and managed securely while automated permission and transaction processing will be made much easier.”

More on Tesseract

EY will be talking about Tesseract at the Leasing Broker Conference on November 23 at the RSA House off London’s Strand