DOVU and BMW Join Forces in Cryptocurrency Mileage Programme
Vehicle ownership can be spectacular for anyone, from first-time owners to those that love to travel. But one of the challenges that any owner faces is the fact that cars don’t retain value well. It’s nothing new, however, according to the AA, depending on the vehicle, depreciation can be devastating for resale values.
The rate of devaluation can range from 10 to 40% per year depending on the kind of vehicle and how you drive. But with companies like DOVU, these concerns may be a thing of the past as they join forces with BMW. The two companies have banded together to use blockchain and data-sharing to collect mileage data and improve resale values.
DOVU & BMW launch Mileage data programme
Nick Brownrigg, CEO of Alphabet and head of BMW’s leasing and Fleet vehicle team knows all about depreciation in cars. DOVU had recently taken part in a 10-week search for new and disruptive methods of measuring mileage.
“When a driver fuels their vehicle, the fuel station is supposed to enter and store the mileage of the vehicle. Also printing the mileage on the fuel receipt.”
The current system used by companies is rife with errors due to fuel stations being responsible for printing mileage on user receipts. This issue of inconsistency resulted in the new partnership of Alphabet, BMW and DOVU to find a smarter way of tracking depreciation and mileage.
Under the 10-week trial, DOVU introduced a wallet-app which asked users to take a picture of their dashboard. Upon doing so, travel information would be stored with the user awarded a DOV token. These tokens acted as a reward scheme for users to input their data willingly to be shared across the platform.
“We had produced a custom wallet for BMW, co-branded with the Alphabet visual branding. The app was distributed internally via our enterprise accounts with versions available for iOS, and Android users and the pilot continues to run so we can keep measuring how tokenisation can encourage people to carry out certain tasks or influence their behaviour.”
