Mercedes-Benz app to help owners dodge crime-filled car parks

Mercedes-Benz is working on a new in-car app that will help owners dodge car parks with high crime rates.

Creatively titled 'safe parking', the app was developed in just 48 hours, part of a hackathon program hosted in the German brand's Seattle tech centre.

The idea is simple; if you're in a new town and trying to find parking, your car (via the clever MBUX multimedia system) will crunch recent crime data to identify parking areas with the lowest levels of vehicle break-ins and vandalism.

A preview version of the app, which focused only on the city of Seattle, was debuted at the launch the A-Class Sedan - the review for which will be appearing soon on this site.

"Imagine you want to go to a restaurant where you haven't been before, and you don't know where to park or how safe the area is," said one Mercedes tech engineer. "Our application helps find you a parking spot right next to where you want to go, and it suggests which one is the safest for you to park your car.

"We took open data from the city of Seattle, and we paired it with data on parking locations. So a green spot (on the app) indicates an area is very safe, and we suggest you park there. Yellow suggests it is still okay, but maybe consider going to a green space. And red says you don't want to go there.

"Once you have selected your spot, your navigation will take you there. The city of Seattle provides crime statistics, and when you select a spot, we can analyse how much crime has happened in that area over the past week."

The statistics analysed are limited to automotive incidents, rather than muggings or violent crime, and the idea - still in its infancy - depends heavily on the availability of stats in your area, something that could prove an issue in Australia.

“It’s very interesting. Should something like that become available in Australia, I’m sure the take-up would be strong, but it would depend on the availability of up-to-date data," said Mercedes-Benz Australia's corporate communications manager, David McCarthy.

"There is a delay with gathering those statistics, and a general reluctance to release them, but if all those boxes were ticked, I’m sure it would be popular."

What else would you like an app in your car for? Tell us in the comments below.