Systems and methods for maintaining a distributed ledger pertaining to smart contracts

A computer system for maintaining a distributed ledger of transactions pertaining to a plurality of smart contracts, the computer system comprising:

• one or more processors;
• a communication module adapted to communicate with a plurality of autonomous vehicles;
• a non-transitory program memory coupled to the one or more processors and storing executable instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to:
• receive a plurality of transactions from the plurality of autonomous vehicles, the transactions indicative of at least one of a trigger condition or a decision condition associated with one or more smart contracts of the plurality of smart contracts, wherein a decision condition for a particular smart contract of the plurality of smart contracts relates to a control state of a particular vehicle, and a first transaction of the plurality of transactions is generated by an electronic device associated with the particular vehicle in response to a change in the control state of the particular vehicle;
• compile the plurality of transactions into a block of transactions;
• distribute the block to a plurality of validation entities to form a consensus on an update to the distributed ledger;
• route the plurality of transactions within the block to respective smart contracts from the plurality of smart contracts, wherein a second transaction corresponding to the particular smart contract indicates that a trigger condition for the particular smart contract has occurred;
• and
• automatically execute an action the particular smart contract directs should be performed in response to the particular trigger condition, the action determined based upon the control state of the particular vehicle indicated by the first transaction.

A non-transitory computer readable storage medium storing processor-executable instructions, that, when executed, cause one or more processors to:

• receive a plurality of transactions from the plurality of autonomous vehicles, the transactions indicative of at least one of a trigger condition or a decision condition associated with one or more smart contracts of the plurality of smart contracts, wherein a decision condition for a particular smart contract of the plurality of smart contracts relates to a control state of a particular vehicle, and a first transaction of the plurality of transactions is generated by an electronic device associated with the particular vehicle in response to a change in the control state of the particular vehicle;
• compile the plurality of transactions into a block of transactions;
• distribute the block to a plurality of validation entities to form a consensus on an update to the distributed ledger;
• route the plurality of transactions within the block to respective smart contracts from the plurality of smart contracts, wherein a second transaction corresponding to the particular smart contract indicates that a trigger condition for the particular smart contract has occurred;
• and
• automatically execute an action the particular smart contract directs should be performed in response to the particular trigger condition, the action determined based upon the control state of the particular vehicle indicated by the first transaction.