DIMO x Helium — Future 5G Partner
A Helium-inspired Future 5G Partner
DIMO is building a user-owned IoT platform that allows drivers to stream vehicle data in exchange for connected vehicle services and tokens.
Our team has decades of experience operating vehicle fleets for companies like Waymo and Argo.ai, and building connected vehicle software at companies like Transdev and Ford AV.
We’ve been busy putting this experience to work seeding a web3-first platform for moving things around. We run DIMO hardware and software each day in our personal vehicles to make the experience sharp for new users and the growing group of Alpha Fleet users (yes, you do get an NFT for this…).
This endeavor was inspired by Helium and is being built with support from long-time Helium community members. DIMO Data Miners & Wallets used to connect vehicles will be compatible with both the Helium LoRa and 5G Networks in the near future, helping us move closer to a truly decentralized telecom and mobility future.
Build the future with us — add your car now to get early access to the DIMO Alpha fleet. In doing so you could also be eligible to order a DIMO hotspot today.
Helium…for cars?
IoT tech should be managed by communities in an open and transparent way. But charting the path to this future doesn’t mean tearing down existing companies — it means incorporating them into open web3 ecosystems.
We think a neutral & decentralized connectivity platform is necessary to accelerate the adoption of electric and automated vehicles. Breaking that down, drivers can collect, custody, and share (if they choose to) their vehicle data with an open developer ecosystem so that new and improved mobility products and applications can be built for drivers and fleets.
To Helium operators and users, we hope this sounds familiar. Our core team has been Helium miners since the early days of the Network, and we are inspired by what Helium has accomplished in:
- pioneering a new incentive model for the deployment and maintenance of infrastructure that is faster and more capital efficiency than traditional means; and
- engaging startups and industry incumbents alike within the ecosystem to create services atop the people-powered network — one that doesn’t sacrifice functionality for decentralization.
While incubating ideas for the DIMO platform, we sought to apply these concepts to our own assessment of key problems in the automotive and mobility world. It’s how we arrived where we are today.
DIMO’s Roadmap: The Path to 5G
Having spent months in R&D, we’re starting to share our technology with the world and build the community that will eventually own the project. In the next month we’ll start allowing users to connect their vehicles to the open network and start earning test-net $DIMO tokens.
We’ll also be establishing key aspects of the infrastructure and governance required to build and maintain the DIMO platform. And with all of that said, there are some particularly exciting parts of our roadmap that involve Helium.
First, one of the many ways in which drivers will stream vehicle data to the DIMO platform is through cellular connections enabled by our DIMO Data Miner.
Think of it like a Helium Hotspot, just installed in your car. While we’re using LTE to stream this data today, DIMO x AutoPi will support the Helium 5G Network in 2022. This will not be the case for v1 hardware, but in subsequent versions we build. Further, we are exploring the potential for our miner to act as a validator & mapper for Helium 5G — which, in theory, creates the possibility for users to earn both $DIMO and $HNT via the device.
Very similar to Helium, $DIMO will have a dual role: to reward data providers and for data consumers to access data. The DIMO token will also have governance rights which enable community members to help shape the direction of DIMO’s products and platform. If you want to dive deep on our roadmap, jump in here.
DIMO Apps
It’s often helpful to imagine what applications can be built using a decentralized and user-owned automotive IoT platform. As with any open ecosystem we hope that there will be many applications we have not yet thought of, but we’re excited to seed the development of a few like:
- 🔋 Battery Intelligence: Realtime ground-truth data on battery performance
- 💳 Vehicle Financing: Vehicle value can and should be data-driven
- 🦎 Smart Insurance: Let’s fix data-driven car insurance
- ⚡️ Energy Utility Integrations: Let’s get the electric grid ready for EVs
- 🚙 User-owned Ride Hailing: Transition some of web2’s biggest networks to web3 platforms with lower take-rates.
Get Involved with DIMO
You can sign up for a DIMO account and add a vehicle (or vehicles). We’ll notify you when we’re ready to help you connect your car, which should only be a few weeks.
If you’re looking to join the DAO and community, you can find us at our Discord Server. We also know that there’s great interest in deciphering and understanding car data — so in addition to those who want to send us vehicle data, we’re building a community around those who want to decode vehicle data. Car hackers and tinkerers around the world who have been working on this for years? There’s a place for you in DIMO, too.
Hop in and join us: https://dimo.zone.
Alex Rawitz has spent 10 years in and around startups in the crypto and IoT world, and is always looking to put these technologies to work making people’s lives better. Prior to DIMO, Alex worked with exchanges, defi protocols, and fintechs at Chainalysis. Before that he worked in sales at Servato, an IoT company in the telecom space. He started his career at a startup accelerator, The Idea Village, in New Orleans.