Potholes are a common frustration for drivers, causing mid-commute coffee spills or even puncturing tires, and getting a city to fix them can be even more frustrating. But a partnership between Waymo and Waze could help curb these daily encounters that have you apologizing to your car.
This month, Waymo and Waze are piloting a program to deploy autonomous vehicles and artificial intelligence to equip cities with improved insights regarding road conditions.
Waymo's autonomous vehicles will be utilized to detect and provide up-to-date information on potholes, uploading this data to Waze for Cities, a platform for cities and state Departments of Transportation. Along with user-reported pothole information, this data gives officials an additional view of surface street and highway conditions that enables them to more efficiently and effectively fill potholes.
Many cities around the U.S. depend on non-emergency 311 reports from residents and manual inspections to address potholes. Reporting potholes can be difficult for residents, as precise location information can be difficult to provide, especially while driving. This partnership intends to complete the picture of road health and make it easier to allocate maintenance resources.
This collaboration will be launched in the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta metro areas, and Waymo reports it has already identified approximately 500 potholes.
The aim is to extend this initiative to areas Waymo serves, especially those experiencing winter weather and challenging freeze-thaw cycles that worsen pothole issues.
Whether you love them, hate them, or don't even notice them, self-driving rideshare vehicles are expanding their influence on streets in major metropolitan areas. One benefit is that Waymo's fleet of all-electric vehicles can help commuters reach their destinations using a cleaner form of transportation — and even those who aren't pro-EV would still have to acknowledge that replacing gas-powered taxis with EVs means cleaner localized air for pedestrians.
"For years, drivers on Waze have helped each other by reporting potholes for a smoother, safer ride," said Andrew Stober, strategic partner manager at Waze. "It's a great example of how working together helps our community and makes our roads better for everyone."
Despite the excitement from Waymo and Waze, the public seems to be a bit more reluctant to celebrate this partnership, with many pointing to municipality inaction as the root cause of city roads being plagued with potholes.
One X user joked that this pothole data should be sent to Domino's Pizza, referring to the pizza chain's 2018 campaign to improve deliveries by repairing potholes themselves.
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"Should just build an autonomous road paver and street sweeper service that the government pays them for," another user suggested.
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