Surface Events

For the specific use case of surface damage in a particular region or area of interest, we trigger data collection from our Mercedes-Benz customer vehicle fleet through a campaign. We collect only the specific data needed and only if the drivers have given their consent to provide the data. The data is then continuously sent from our customer fleet to the Mercedes-Benz Cloud for the defined period. Various data points from high-quality sensors are collected such as vehicle type, damper level, wheel spin and steering wheel angle.

In the Mercedes-Benz backend, the algorithm calculates the average intensity of road surface events. Based on multiple passes with additional vehicles, higher accuracy of the calculated surface event is achieved. Detection can be performed simultaneously over the entire range of data collected. We generate highly accurate data based on GPS position, vehicle direction (compass direction), and distance to lane markings. However, we "obfuscate" the time stamp to a certain extent to make it impossible to track a single person for privacy reasons.

We then provide on the Mercedes-Benz Data Dashboard and via API the aggregated and accurate GPS position and heading of the event cluster, the number of individual events per cluster, the time span of the clustered events, and the intensity of the detected surface event.