New cars have several times been described as "data vacuum cleaners" that collect large amounts of data on, for example, driving conditions, weather and speed.

It is now clear that Mercedes must deliver information about the Swedish road network to the Swedish Transport Administration. Among other things, the data must be used to find coating damage such as pot holes, frost damage and other winter damage.

- If we retrieve anonymized vehicle data from connected passenger cars, we should be able to get better decision-making information and thus better road maintenance, says Fredrik Lindström, national coordinator for road surface measurements at the Swedish Transport Administration.

The information is collected by the car's 350 different sensors and, according to Mercedes, it is "completely anonymised". The car owner must also actively approve the collection in the Mercedes mobile app.

In addition to Mercedes, it also includes Nira Dynamics, which develops systems for signal processing and control systems, and the company Univrses, which develops technology for artificial intelligence.