Renault, Microsoft don't want you to lie about your used car

Buying used cars is one risky transaction. The guarantee of getting fooled by unlawful sellers is almost at the same rate of getting a good unit. However, this scheme may soon meet its end as French automaker Groupe Renault introduces the world’s first digital car maintenance book.

Renault announces its team up with Microsoft and VISEO for the development of a safe and secured database for vehicle information. The system is said to run based on Microsoft’s Azure Blockchain, which stores information under a decentralized database. This way, no one can forge or alter the information stored under the platform.

Right now, customer and vehicle information is scattered across different storage areas accessed by car manufacturers, insurers, repair shops, among others. So, another goal of this innovation is to simplify the system by storing the vehicle's maintenance data under one place that’s easily accessible by the customers. This database is then collaboratively contributed by the above-mentioned participating bodies.

In time, you will no longer worry for altered odometers and forged documents when buying a used car. With the help of the digital car maintenance book, you can track the records of the vehicle since the day it rolled out the dealership.

In the meantime, Groupe Renault has yet to disclose when the blockchain-based maintenance book will be publicly available. But since the technology looks promising, we can’t really get any more excited about it. We just hope mainstream brands adapt the technology right away.