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Transportation Technology

Alfa Romeo is Building NFTs Into Latest Hybrid Car To Record Vehicle Data (coindesk.com) 29

Posted by msmash from the how-about-that dept.
Italian luxury car maker Alfa Romeo has revealed it will be using non-fungible tokens (NFT) to track and store maintenance records on the blockchain for its new Tonale SUV. From a report: Alfa Romeo, which is owned by Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler), appears to be the first carmaker to utilize NFTs in this way, seemingly in a bid to bring transparency and efficiency to a car market that often relies on third parties to track car records. "Digitalization is a key enabler of our metamorphosis," Francesco Calcara, head of marketing at Alfa Romeo, said in a media briefing. "[The NFTs] will sustain the residual values of our models as we are the first in the market to adopt this next-generation technology." The company says the car's NFT will be able to generate a certificate from records of its maintenance data, but only for service done by certified dealers.
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Alfa Romeo is Building NFTs Into Latest Hybrid Car To Record Vehicle Data More

Alfa Romeo is Building NFTs Into Latest Hybrid Car To Record Vehicle Data

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  • owned by the dealers and you need to buy it if 3rd (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Joe_Dragon ( 2206452 ) on Thursday February 10, 2022 @10:12AM (#62255463)

    owned by the dealers and you need to buy it if 3rd party repair needs it.

  • What an awful use of blockchain. Have we sunk so far down in the trust scale that we need to put things such as repair records into a blockchain forever?

    • Have we sunk so far down in the trust scale that we need to put things such as repair records into a blockchain forever?

      You should not assume that things will be in the blockchain forever. It is highly likely that no one will care to retain a copy of this blockchain.

      Public blockchain is a lot like Linus Torvolds' backup strategy: upload it to FTP and let other people mirror it. It works fine if people are willing to do that.

  • This will be hacked before the first one needs serviced. Alfa Romeo have enough problems getting reliability in their core area of competency; they're not going to do this right.

    • Don't worry, this part will be farmed out to a third party that will TOTALLY get it right. Totes. First time.

  • (granted, of the models sold in the USA)

    Alfas just to be made for people who were passionate about cars, for people who were passionate about cars. When buying a used Alfa, a full set of repair records were expected to be on hand. Any Alfa that didn't have any records sold with the car, was viewed with suspicion.

    As (at least in my area) not too many Alfas were around, word grew quickly which ones were "legit" and which ones were cobbled together nightmares, like the sole imported RHD GTA perpetually being s

    • I would put forward that there are very few cars (if any) with actual soul sold anymore. Except for the Kia Soul, but that doesn't count.

      • And yes, reliability has become first and foremost, but in the search for reliability, we've lost the character of the cars. Their soul if you will.

        Today's cars have all the personality and character of dry bread.

        • Re: (Score:2)

          by ceoyoyo ( 59147 )

          No worries, just buy an old beater that breaks down at random times. For bonus points, do extensive work on it yourself. Nothing gets the adrenaline going than realizing your life may depend on that bit of amateur mechanical work you did while tired and frustrated. For extra bonus points get into kit built airplanes.

  • The worst kind of marketing BS (Score:5, Insightful)

    by Viol8 ( 599362 ) on Thursday February 10, 2022 @10:42AM (#62255557) Homepage

    In no way are NFTs or blockhains required for storing this sort of data securely , this is nothing more than marketdroids learning some buzzwords they can put in the brochure and telling the engineers to shut up and implement it regardless or whether its a good idea or not.

    • Not only not required - it is actually a stupid idea, compared to an ordinary database. At best - if they run their own blockchain, it will just be stupidly inefficient. At worst, if they use a public blockchain, they will have costs and security issues.

      Cryptocurrencies do have genuine uses. For example, apparently in the US sex workers have trouble keeping bank accounts and payment processors, because of US religious idiots. Many have moved to cryptocurrencies for payments, because they are (so far, anywa

      • > Bet: Alfa Romeo will also have this data in an SQL database, and the blockchain is just for show.

        A saving grace is that Fiat is probably going to go out of business and then the used market can verify maintenance records.

        They can screw it all up by having the blockchain hold a hash of the SQL db record instead of real data.

    • Re: (Score:2)

      by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

      In no way are NFTs or blockhains required for storing this sort of data securely , this is nothing more than marketdroids learning some buzzwords they can put in the brochure and telling the engineers to shut up and implement it regardless or whether its a good idea or not.

      Welcome! Remember 2019/2020 when the keyword was "Blockchain" and every company was becoming a "blockchain" company?

      You might remember a certain iced tea company pivoting to blockchain and seeing a massive rise in their stock. Then someti

  • Nice Alfa you've got there... (Score:5, Insightful)

    by macwhiz ( 134202 ) on Thursday February 10, 2022 @10:56AM (#62255593)

    ...it'd be a shame if its resale value were reduced because you didn't have all service done at a dealership so the receipts were certified on our blockchain.

    This is an end-run around right-to-repair laws like the one in Massachusetts. You can do the repairs and maintenance yourself, or you can take them to a third-party mechanic... but that means the work won't be recorded on the car's blockchain, and therefore won't be "certified." They're likely hoping that will reduce the perceived resale value of the car. I'm sure that soon enough, they'll start saying "Before buying a used Alfa, always check for full blockchain-certified service records to prove the work was done, and done right by an Alfa dealer."

    Wouldn't surprise me if they try to tie warranty service to blockchain-certified service records, but in the U.S. that would probably run afoul of the Magnuson-Moss Warranty Act's tie-in prohibitions.

    • I sold a vehicle at carmax... had every paper receipt for every oil change... back then i was really into doing them before the required timeframe. Guess what the Carmax guy said when I pulled out the boxload of paper... he didn't need to see any of it, wouldn't change the price. >:(

      • Re: (Score:2)

        by macwhiz ( 134202 )

        Were you trying to sell a theoretically collectible but notoriously unreliable Italian car made using a mix of Peugeot, Fiat, Chrysler, and obsolete second-hand Mercedes technology?

        I suspect that maintenance records are a bit more impactful for Alfas than they are for many other brands.

    • A certified repair station just needs to record the work performed in the official database and job done. No NFT needed.

      It's just a buzzword. They're not even using the buzzword correctly since no one will be buying or selling the Non-Fungible Tokens. But it sounds sexier to the uninformed than "crypto authenticated service records".

  • The real utility of this technology was always going to be enforcement of DRM or stuff like this. "Verifiable ledgers will free you from tyranny" was always such a weird claim.

    • Dear Alfa Customer,

      According to our block chain you did not properly service your vehicle at an authorized dealer. Therefore, your warranty is now void and we have added this information to your car's permanent block chain record NFT.

      Your car is now worth 30 to 50% than other Alfa's of the same vintage due to your negligence.

      Have a nice day!

      Sincerely,
      Alfa Romeo

  • Great way to demonstrate being a "technically forward looking company" without offering anything of value. Sheesh...
  • wow. This is a mobius loop of inanity. Can we just start with the obvious? Alfa Romeo, which is owned by Stellantis (formerly Fiat Chrysler) That is a 3 patty 'car' manufacturer turd burger of epic proportions. Pointless NFTs are really icing on the top. Or is it the use of the word ' metamorphosis' ? Or the claim that Alfa's can sustain the residual values of [their] models? in the real world double wow

  • > the carâ(TM)s NFT will be able to generate a certificate from records of its maintenance data, but only for service done by certified dealers.

    Just store the maintenance records on a blockchain. Have the car and the dealer sign the transaction with merged ed25519 or something.

    NFT's are for tracking ownership of digital property - the hell are these people talking about?

    • NFT's are for tracking ownership of digital property - the hell are these people talking about?

      An NFT is just a crypto-coin with a piece of metadata attached. You can store whatever you want in the metadata.

  • NFTs will cure cancer.

  • Company which can't design a reliable car to save themselves also can't design a functional maintenance management system either.

  • Which blockchain? If its an internal one, it is just a private database. Otherwise, how do they choose which one to use? What happens if the public chosen blockchain fades away? Also NFT usually means you want to be able to sell it, why do you want to sell a maintenance record? Also NFT data are usually not onchain... Marketing nonsense.

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