Imagine getting paid to report traffic jams and potholes… Well, thanks to Jaguar Land Rover, this could soon become a reality. JLR are testing some new technology that could actually pay you for reporting things you come across every day. Your car will even have its own wallet. How cool is that? This is everything you need to know about the latest proposed technology from Jaguar Land Rover.
How It Works
The new tech by JLR involves a ‘Smart Wallet’ in your car that will allow you to rack up funds to pay for things such as parking tolls, car parking, and even EV charging with their own form of cryptocurrency. All you need to do is earn credits for reporting things like potholes in the road, or even mark when there has been an incident or traffic jam on the road. That credit will then be placed into your JLR Smart Wallet, which you can use to pay for plenty of driving-related things.
Sharing Data
Software architect at Jaguar Land Rover, Russell Vickers, explains about the ‘sharing economy’ which involves sharing data that is useful to other road users. There are already several apps on the market that allow you to do something similar, but many of these rely on users earning badges or achievements for reporting the issues. The difference with this tech from JLR is that you could actually earn money (well, digital money) that will come in useful. No more having to root around for change whenever you reach a toll.
Testing It Out
The tech is currently being tested in several F-Pace and Velar cars in Ireland, where the data is being fed back to Jaguar Land Rover. The car manufacturer has bigger plans to help their cars become ‘data gatherers’ around the world, helping to reduce congestion and even creating less emissions from those being stuck in traffic jams. This is just a step toward a larger plan, but it’s certainly in the right direction.
Only time will tell if the test in Ireland is successful and whether JLR will then roll this out in other vehicles around the world. However, we’d certainly be happy getting paid to report potholes!