The world is not a safe place, especially if you drive a Mercedes-Benz. Auto-related crimes are not something new, but the German premium automaker wants them to become a thing of the past and is developing a new application that will help drivers avoid dangerous areas when looking for a parking space.

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Using police statistics, the software will build a database of the locations with a higher chance of encountering vandalism, assault, and other crimes. The application should be ready for the next-generation models of the manufacturer and will use a colour-based system to reflect the level of security at certain places.

Empty scary city car park garage at night

“We took open data from the city of Seattle and compared that with data from the parking spaces at your target location,” Mercedes software developer Markus Ehmann told Drive. "We can select a parking spot and analyse how much crime has happened in that area over the last weeks. Green indicates that the area is very safe, so we suggest you to park there. Yellow means ‘it’s still ok, but consider going to a green one’, and red is ‘you don’t want to go there’.”

The in-car service will be developed for a limited amount of regions around the world where crime data is publicly available. It will be offered through a dedicated Mercedes-Benz app store and will also provide information such as walking distance to the final destination, parking fees, and traffic jams.

Two young intimidating men wearing masks in car park

“It’s very interesting because it draws on local geographic knowledge and all sorts of statistics including crime statistics and parking spot availability,” David McCarthy, a spokesman for Mercedes in Australia, adds. “Should something like that become available I’m sure the take-up would be very strong.”

Meanwhile, Mercedes is also working on a new “robust” software platform, which will allow users to activate or deactivate features in their car according to their preferences.

Big empty urban city parking lot at night