A potential huge use case for blockchain is virtual proof of validation of highly automated driving functions. ELI5: cars and related companies exchanging information like maps, traffic and other useful information in the form of digital data which is stored on a database. (Or the Chorus Mobility Tezos-Based concept for vehicle to vehicle payments.)
Storing and exchanging this data on a blockchain reduces costs. (Like the French Cybercrime Unit accounting usecase on Tezos, that reduced administration costs from 40,- EUR to a few cents.) Besides the reduction of costs, blockchain (if decentralized) also brings trust between unknown parties. (Which is of most importance if there is an imbalance of power. Like BMW and some new startup.)
Carlo van Dreisten explains in this video (which I highly recommend you to watch completely):
"This should be a distributed ecosystem. So we need some kind of a settlement layer that interconnects all of this. So there are transactions. So there are data flows. Someone handing over a map, someone verifying it, or giving it additional information, someone that buys it, someone that uses it. Someone that brings a proof. So it's a chain of proof and usage that needs to be validated." "This is where blockchain technology comes to place."
Carlo van Driesten (Project Lead Virtual Test & Validation, BMW Group) and Pierre Mai (CEO of Algedonic Loop GmbH) have deployed a proof of concept that they presented in the beginning of December 2019 in the ENVITED ecosystem. See in here in the video the smartcontract deployed on the Tezos blockchain and transactions.
In the end of January, the ENVITED work group visited Nomadic Labs in Paris to talk about their automotive use case building on Tezos. Nomadic Labs is one of the bigger contributors to Tezos development. (Also working on Tezos' variation of Tendermint: Tenderbake, for immediate finality in Tezos.)
As announced today, ENVITED continues their work on their virtual proof of highly automated driving functions based on the Tezos blockchain.
ENVITED is part of the Automotive Solution Center for Simulation. You can follow them on twitter for updates on this topic: @ASCS_eV