The “Active Parking Assist” from Mercedes-Benz recognizes empty parking spaces by simply passing them. That brought ad agency Jung von Matt/Neckar to the idea that if the car knows where the empty parking spaces are, then everybody could also be informed.
So just before Christmas when parking spaces were hard to find, they launched the Mercedes-Benz Tweet Fleet with its Active Parking Assist that tweeted empty parking spaces in downtown Stuttgart.
The MBTweetFleet cars automatically generated the tweets with GPS data via Arduino an onboard electronic and a PHP Relay. People could then follow @MBTweetFleet to find empty parking spaces near them on Twitter and be navigated there by the linked Google map.
Why this idea is stronger than it looks
The cleverness is not “tweeting”. The cleverness is turning a capability that already exists inside the car into a public utility. That flips a product feature into a service people can use immediately, without buying anything first.
- Signal becomes service. The car detects something useful. The system shares it.
- Real-time context. Parking availability is only valuable when it is current.
- Distribution is native. Twitter is a lightweight channel for fast, location-based updates.
The technical stack is simple, but the integration is the point
GPS plus an onboard controller plus a relay layer is not the story. The story is that data moves from sensing to publishing with minimal friction. That is what makes it feel “live”.
- Detect. Active Parking Assist identifies an empty space while driving.
- Locate. GPS attaches coordinates.
- Publish. An automated tweet shares the spot publicly.
- Act. People navigate using the linked map.
In urban mobility and smart-city moments, public utility beats brand messaging when the value is immediate, local, and easy to act on.
What to take from this if you build connected experiences
- Start with a real pain point. Holiday parking pressure is a perfect use case.
- Make the feature externally visible. Utility grows when it helps non-owners too.
- Choose a low-friction channel. Where people already are beats “download our app”.
- Design for immediacy. Real-time value requires real-time delivery.
A few fast answers before you act
What is Mercedes-Benz Tweet Fleet?
It is a campaign in Stuttgart where Mercedes-Benz used Active Parking Assist to detect empty parking spaces and automatically tweet their locations so people could find and navigate to them.
Why does Active Parking Assist enable this?
Because it can recognize empty parking spaces as the car passes them, creating a reliable signal that can be shared.
How were the tweets generated?
The cars generated tweets automatically using GPS data, an Arduino-based onboard electronic component, and a PHP relay.
How did people use the service?
They followed @MBTweetFleet on Twitter and used the linked map in tweets to navigate to nearby empty spaces.
What is the transferable lesson?
If a product can sense something valuable in the real world, you can turn that sensing into a public utility by publishing it in a channel people already use.