Waymo Robotaxis Have A New Job: Spotting Potholes

Waymo and Waze (both Alphabet subsidiaries) have announced a new pilot program that will allow cities access to data discovered by Waymo robotaxis. The data will be given to city and state Departments of Transportation when a Waymo robotaxi hits a pothole, flagging it as an obstacle and for repair. Waze users will also be given access to the data.

Data will be made accessible via the free Waze for Cities platform, which will also combine user-reported pothole information. Users can flag potholes as part of the Waze program, which also allows users to flag other obstacles like construction and vehicles, like police speed traps or stopped vehicles on the roadside. As with any other reported item on Waze, users will also be able to continually verify the presence of a pothole, increasing data accuracy. Waze for Cities is a resource for cities to gain access to Waze driving data to help cities streamline traffic, monitor road conditions, and more.

"We want to build on the safety benefits of our service by partnering with organizations and city officials to help improve the infrastructure we all depend on,” said Arielle Fleisher, Policy Development and Research Manager at Waymo. The autonomous rideshare company argues that the 311 non-emergency reports cities rely on for pothole fixes aren't efficient, saying the "constituent-driven model of road maintenance provides cities with an incomplete picture of road health that can make it difficult to allocate maintenance resources equitably." The program, ideally, will fill these gaps.

Waymo has launched its pothole-fixing pilot in five cities: the San Francisco Bay Area and the Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta metro areas, with around 500 potholes already identified. The next move will be to expand, with the company specifically targeting four-season cities that suffer from "winter weather and harsh freeze-thaw cycles that exacerbate the pothole problem."