MERCEDES-BENZ plans to help emergency crews in the event of an accident by putting coded stickers on its cars.
The barcode-like QR panels – called Rescue Assist – can be found inside the fuel filler cap and on the opposite door pillar and are being fitted to all models.
The panels contain information about the make, model and specifications of the car as well as the location of any high voltage power cables in the case of hybrid vehicles and the associated safety systems.
Emergency crews can scan the panels with any enabled smartphone or tablet saving time when attending a crash.
Craig Flannery, learning and development manager at The Fire Service College said: “We’d like to be in a position where all cars have QR Codes, simply because it’s going to reduce the amount of time taken to extricate the casualty, which in turn is going to improve survival rates.”
At the moment 999 crews have to scan a database to obtain specific information about a vehicle.
Mercedes claims that on average the QR codes save around two minutes at the point at which the emergency services first arrive on the scene.
The QR codes can be retrofitted, free of charge, by any Mercedes-Benz retailer to any model built from 1990 onwards and the company hopes the technology will be adopted across the automotive industry. Mercedes-Benz has agreed to waive the patent on the QR code stickers to encourage this process.