Concept: IBM and Mercedes has announced the development of “Urban Guard – Stolen Vehicle Help,” a recently released service in the Mercedes me app designed to help detect and recover stolen vehicles. The solution builds on prior partnership between IBM and Daimler, Mercedes’ parent company, to develop connected car services like “ready to.”
Nature of Disruption: The “Urban Guard – Stolen Vehicle Help” service, which is included in the Mercedes me App, is meant to assist customers and law enforcement in tracking and recovering stolen cars. The “Stolen Vehicle Help” service collects essential vehicle and customer data that might help law enforcement identify and recover a vehicle, given the necessity of timeliness in the case of a theft. This information, together with vehicle position information, is subsequently provided to law enforcement through a service partner who is allowed to interact with police stations all over the world. IBM Global Business Services and Mercedes worked closely together to analyze and design the end-to-end process. To achieve high-speed performance, IBM built the backend utilizing cloud-native open-source technologies like the Red Hat version of Quarkus. IBM provides a technical connection between the different parties and existing systems, such as customer data APIs and call center tools, as an implementation partner.
Outlook: Car thefts have increased and digital, connected car services can assist mitigate this danger and improve law enforcement’s ability to retrieve lost or stolen vehicles. Consumers are increasingly expecting and valuing digital, connected services on par with vehicle driving performance, implying that connected car experiences are as essential as horsepower or handling. Mercedes by developing connected car services that help protect the owner’s investment can strengthen its relationship with customers while also differentiating itself. The service was made available to European customers initially and is currently available to qualified users in certain countries across North America and Asia Pacific, following successful recovery operations.
This article was originally published in Verdict.co.uk