Cryptography-based platooning mechanism for autonomous vehicle fleet management

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium for tangibly storing computer program instructions that when executed by a computer processor, cause the computer processor to perform steps comprising:

• establishing a network connection between a plurality of autonomous vehicles, the plurality of autonomous vehicles operating as a platoon;
• receiving a digitally signed request from a first autonomous vehicle of the plurality of autonomous vehicles to deviate from the platoon, wherein the digitally signed request is secured using a DICE-RIoT protocol;
• reading a public key corresponding to the first autonomous vehicle from a blockchain data structure;
• validating the digitally signed request using the public key;
• instantiating a new platoon path using the first autonomous vehicle as a head of the new platoon path when validating the digitally signed request is successful;
• recording the new platoon path in the blockchain data structure;
• and
• disconnecting a subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles including the first autonomous vehicle and at least one other vehicle from the platoon when the new platoon path has been recorded in the blockchain data structure, wherein the subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles are associated with the new platoon path based on future routes of the subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles, and the disconnecting causes the first autonomous vehicle to manage the at least one other vehicle using a local blockchain data structure stored on the first autonomous vehicle.

A device comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• establish a network connection between a plurality of autonomous vehicles, the plurality of autonomous vehicles operating as a platoon;
• receive a digitally signed request from a first autonomous vehicle of the plurality of autonomous vehicles to deviate from the platoon, wherein the digitally signed request is secured using a DICE-RIoT protocol;
• read a public key corresponding to the first autonomous vehicle from a blockchain data structure;
• validate the digitally signed request using the public key;
• instantiate a new platoon path using the first autonomous vehicle as a head of the new platoon path when validating the digitally signed request is successful;
• record the new platoon path in the blockchain data structure;
• and
• disconnect a subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles including the first autonomous vehicle and at least one other vehicle from the platoon when the new platoon path has been recorded in the blockchain data structure, wherein the subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles are associated with the new platoon path based on future routes of the subset of the plurality of autonomous vehicles, and the disconnecting causes the first autonomous vehicle to manage the at least one other vehicle using a local blockchain data structure stored on the first autonomous vehicle.