Audi Think Tank to Explore IOTA's Tangle

IOTA and Audi Denkwerkstatt - the German car manufacturer's think tank - have teamed up to explore the Tangle for building a permissionless mobility ecosystem, together embarking on a one-week Google Design Sprint in Berlin.

Starting July 25, 2018, the collaboration will include the production of a low-level prototype, gathering customer feedback, and exploring usage cases for IOTA's Directed Acrylic Graph ledger technology.

This is not the first time IOTA has piqued the interest of the automobile industry, with Volkswagen announcing in June 2018 it will tap into the Tangle to distribute trusted vehicle software over-the-air.

This new way of working is exemplary for how car manufacturers approach innovation and is a great opportunity for IOTA to be maybe integrated into a new mobility solution with expertise from Audi.

Audi Denkwerkstatt focuses on developing a variety of products and business models in tandem with members from the digital ecosystem.

While mobility is a central concern of Audi's research outfit, a number of IOTA's strong-suits would appear to be of interest to the 15-member think tank, who seek "Innovations in the areas of HR, IT, data security, sales, finance or similar."

According to IOTA, their technology couldn't be a better fit for the job.

In an announcement on the IOTA blog, the team described their open source protocol as being "Predestined" to revolutionize "Any kind of business ideas that rely on trust in data, scalable & safe machine to machine communication & transaction settlement."

IOTA - the 9th largest cryptocurrency by market capitalization - would appear to be continuing its impressive momentum in 2018, with a number of equally heavy-hitting corporations and political bodies announced their commitment to utilizing the Tangle, most recently the United Nations and the Norwegian Bank.

As IOTA sees the addition of smart contracts with its long-awaited Qubic upgrade, the Germany-based project may prove unprecedented utility for DAG technology.