The aerospace giant Boeing has announced its intention to use blockchain technology to monitor unmanned aerial vehicles used for cargo transport and urban air travel in the future.
Boeing has partnered with the artificial intelligence firm (SparkCognition) to develop a decentralized platform capable of "tracking unmanned aerial vehicles in flight and assigning corridors and transit routes" to ensure safe transport, the company said in an announcement on Tuesday. .
The collaboration will notably utilize blockchain technology to monitor Boeing's next-generation air vehicles that the company plans to deploy in a series of commercial applications, including package delivery and urban air transport, the latter similar to Uber's "air taxi" .
Boeing plans to use a "standardized programming interface to support package delivery, industrial inspection and other commercial applications," the company added, without giving more details on the type of blockchain platform used for the effort.
To prepare for this future, the world's largest aviation company is establishing Boeing NeXt, a new subsidiary that will use the company's R & D to focus on the advancement of autonomous flights and next-generation trips. Boeing NeXt also includes the company's hypersonic passenger flight concept in its portfolio along with its electric vehicle take-off and landing (eVTOL) vehicles for on-demand cargo transport and urban air travel in the future.
The blockchain development effort follows the risk group of the company that participated in the $ 32 million financing round of SparkCognition last month.
"Estimated by some analysts at $ 3 billion, the opportunity for urban air mobility will lead to the creation of the largest new market in our lives," enthused the founder and head of SparkCognition, Amir Husain.