NEW YORK -

Assurance, tax, transaction and advisory services provider EY is looking to make a connection of blockchain technology with vehicle-fleet management.

On Wednesday, EY today announced the launch of Tesseract, an integrated mobility platform underpinned by blockchain technology.

The company highlighted the platform is designed to facilitate fractional vehicle ownership, shared use and seamless multimodal transport. EY added that the platform can help lay the groundwork for how autonomous vehicle fleets can be owned in the future and provide access to a variety of on-demand mobility options.

EY said that Tesseract solves core mobility issues such as how to share vehicle ownership with widespread shared-use and how a multitude of mobility options can be integrated. As participants on a single platform, multiple stakeholders such as OEMs, mobility and transport companies, and cities and infrastructure providers, among others, will have the opportunity to create new value and revenue streams.

“The future of the automotive and transportation industry will be integrated, on-demand, personalized and autonomous,” EY global automotive and transportation leader Randy Miller said in a news release.

“Tesseract is a groundbreaking, innovative platform that benefits every stakeholder across the mobility ecosystem. We want Tesseract to break down barriers to entry for all stakeholders, provide the means for mobility as a service and facilitate a truly integrated ecosystem that puts consumers first in the future mobility marketplace."

With Tesseract, single vehicles, fleets and other transport services are available on the platform. Vehicles and trips are digitally logged on the blockchain, and transactions are automatically settled between owners, operators and third-party service providers through a single-source, usage-based payment system.

Ownership of the assets is flexible and can be on a full or fractional share basis.

“Tesseract will allow operators to innovate, commercialize and scale new mobility businesses and revenue models. Vehicle utilization will increase, reducing wastage and ultimately creating a greener, more sustainable transport world,” Miller said.

With new business models and income streams that will be created, EY sees funding of expensive assets such as batteries and charging infrastructure will become much easier. Investors, crowd-funders and everyday users will be able to earn money from their investment based on others' usage of vehicles and individuals who could not previously afford a vehicle will now be able to own a share of a vehicle.

“The time has come for blockchain to reshape the automotive industry,” said Paul Brody, EY’s global innovation leader of blockchain.

“Using blockchain for automotive services permits true peer-to-peer interactions between owners with minimal infrastructure requirements,” Brody continued. “Data can be stored permanently and managed securely while automated permission and transaction processing will be made much easier.”