Mercedes-Benz and parent company Daimler are going to be using QR codes on upcoming and current vehicles that will assist rescue workers to make the rescue sheet, a document detailing the design of the car, more easily accessible.
Mercedes will be placing two QR codes, “one on the fuel tank flap and the other on the B-pillar on the opposite vehicle side”, on their motor vehicles that will identify the model of the vehicle in question, provide basic information immediately and make the rescue sheet accessible faster.
The rescue sheet is a design schematic used to identify “the location of the airbags, the battery, the tanks, electric cables, high-pressure cylinders and other components – in the case of hybrid models the location of the additional batteries and high-voltage cables” and can be used to quickly determine where the car can be safely be torn open with rescue shears. Sometimes this document is kept inside a vehicle in a paper format but it can’t always be reached in the event of a collision. Mercedes’ QR code solution will make that occurrence less of a problem and should lead to a few more saved lives.
Best of all, Mercedes-Benz have “waived the right to a patent registration in order to make the system available to everyone”, so the innovation will likely be making its way to other brands of vehicles in very short order.
Source: Digital Trends