Why All Cars Should Come With QR Codes

February 08, 2019

On 22 January 2019, Toyota announced that it would begin collaborating with a new project to encourage people to check their recall status.

You can view the original news article here: http://www.wtvm.com/2019/01/23/toyota-collaborates-with-new-project-give-encourage-people-check-vehicle-recall-status/

For those unfamiliar with the Takata airbag saga, it has been one of the biggest automotive-related recalls in history. Takata's airbag inflator, which is a metal canister, has a defect in it which when ruptured, shoots shrapnel in all directions and could harm the passengers in the vehicle. According to WTVM, by the end of 2019, up to 70 million vehicles will be recalled for defective Takata airbags, affecting 19 automakers in the United States alone.

To try and remedy this problem, Toyota is collaborating with the Carma Project which gives people gift cards for spreading information and telling their friends and family. The Carma Project is an incentive-based program that allows you to send information about the recall status to your social network.

When someone in your network, schedules an appointment to have their vehicle repaired, you earn a $5 gift card and when they have their vehicle repaired, you earn a $50 gift card. For this idea to solve the recall problem, it requires people to want to participate in sharing the information and for affected customers to go and check the year, make and model of their vehicle to find out if it has been affected or not.

How good would it be if customers didn't have to go and look up all that info and instead could just scan a QR code in their vehicle with any mobile device and a notification would instantly tell them if they had been affected by this recall or any other recall in the past?
In my opinion, all cars should come with a QR code.

In fact, a solution already exists that would allow customers to stay up to date about all recalls and factory updates by simply scanning a QR code in their vehicle. Best of all the information is protected and secured by the blockchain, preventing automakers from changing the information later to cover their tracks if something goes wrong in the future.

The Solution:
VeriDoc Global has developed a software solution to secure product information and increase the speed and ease of product updates and recalls. By adding a VeriDoc Secured QR code to a vehicle, anyone with a QR code reader on their mobile phone can easily verify all the details of their vehicle including parts information,Vehicle Identification Number (VIN), paint colour, country of origin, make and model, within a few seconds.
With no expensive or special hardware required, all vehicle owners can verify their car information and stay abreast of product updates and recalls whenever they want for free.

How it works:
The VeriDoc Protocol uses a unique hash value to verify whether the car's information is real or fake. Hash values can be compared to the DNA or fingerprint of a file, whereby no two hash values are the same. The original data is processed through a cryptographic algorithm and a hash value is produced which identifies the original. If the information is modified in any way, the value of the hash will also change significantly.

VeriDoc Global allows users to verify whether their vehicle's information is real or fake by simply scanning a QR code located in their vehicle. Once the QR code is scanned, VeriDoc compares the unique hash value found in the QR code to the unique hash value of the original information stored on the client's server and on the blockchain.

Since the unique hash value stored in the blockchain is incorruptible and can never be modified, it lends itself as a highly trusted reference point for the verification process.

Here's a video explaining how VeriDoc Global works:

https://youtu.be/3KRSFTHEAZg

In addition to being able to verify whether the information is true and correct, VeriDoc Global allows automakers to use the technology to update their customers regarding product recalls and updates. By making it quick and simple to check all the vehicle information, as well as see product recalls and updates while ensuring that the information is authentic, creates a strong case for why all cars should come with a QR code.

This story orginally appeared on Medium.

https://medium.com/@veridocglobal/why-all-cars-should-come-with-a-qr-code-a01a750e720f

This article was written by Daniel da Silva Lay. Daniel is the COO of VeriDoc Global and invites you to connect and explore how VeriDoc Global's anti-fraud solution can be of benefit to you or your organisation.