Mercedes-Benz QR codes save lives
Cars are packed with bells and whistles these days – so rescue teams need a quick way to figure out where they can and can’t cut in an emergency. Via Wikimedia.
In a car accident, the lives that need to be saved are encased in a tangle of aluminum, steel, fuel pumps, explosive air bags, high pressure cylinders, batteries and high voltage wires. Before cutting into a crumpled car, rescue personnel sometimes have to call in to the car manufacturer to make sure they don’t saw through an internal mechanism that could make a terrible situation worse.
Unfortunately, no rescue operation has a second to spare, and placing a phone call for instructions on the internal workings of evermore complicated vehicles seems like a cruel waste of time.
To address this, the German Automobile Association recommends that drivers print out a rescue sheet and tuck it into the visor of their car. A rescue sheet makes technical information available to first responders so they can neutralize dangers at the scene of the accident.
Mercedes-Benz decided they can do one better — using QR codes.
QR code labels like this are often used in marketing, logistics and asset management, but lifesaving applications are new. From myassettag.com.
QR codes have often been the purview of marketing and ad campaigns, or printed on business cards of networkers who want a fast way to lead people to their websites. They’re an elegant system that Mercedes shows has a wide applicability well beyond promotion, though.
Mercedes-Benz QR codes will be pasted into the inside flap of the gas tank, and an identical one will be attached to the bar between the driver’s side door and the backseat door behind. (Apparently, it’s unlikely that both spots on the car will be damaged and inaccessible at the same time.)
The first responder just has to scan the QR code with a smartphone and the same information that they would have guessed at, gotten over the phone, or printed out on a manufacturer-issued rescue sheet will show up automatically.
The QR coded rescue sheets will come with new Mercedes-Benz vehicles, but the company has rescue sheets for every model since 1971 available for PDF download for Benz owners who want to print one out the old fashioned way. To get this technology onto every car would be a logistically simple matter of printing up sticky QR codes and assigning them to the proper owners.
Mercedes-Benz figured out a way to turn QR codes into lifesaving tools. From Lydiashiningbrightly.
It’s a good idea, but Mercedes-Benz took the altruistic road and chose to waive their right to a patent — in fact, they hope other car manufacturers will copy them. The more cars use QR code technology to make rescue safer and faster, the better.
According to United States Census Bureau, in 2009 (the most recent year data is available), 9.5 million vehicles were involved in crashes. Of those, 230,000 involved rollovers, an imperfect indication of severity, but one can assume that in some of those case, paramedics and firemen either used, or could have used, an easily accessible rescue sheet.
Lets hope that Mercedes-Benz’s move not only saves lives, but also ushers in an era of even more innovative applications for QR codes.
Category: QR codes
