GoKawiilis transportation editor with 10+ years of experience who covers EVs, public transportation, and aviation. His work has appeared in The New York Daily News and City & State.
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In recent months, some cities have sought a new recruit in their forever war against potholes: Waymo.
Municipal officials in multiple cities where Waymo operates have reached out to the robotaxi operator for help in locating potholes on their streets, assuming that Waymo kept such data. Fortunately for them, Waymo does, and it has recently decided to launch a pilot program, along with Google’s Waze, to share its pothole data with city officials.
The mission is to make city streets safer to drive, which is desirable for both human and robot drivers. And it could help Waymo’s broader effort to build positive relationships with cities, especially at a time when it finds itself at odds with some city governments over the future of its driverless cars.
“We realized, hey, once we’re at scale, we can actually share this data with cities, which is something that they’ve asked for and something that we collect at scale,” said Arielle Fleisher, Waymo’s policy development and research manager. “And so we figured out a way to make that happen.”
“We can actually share this data with cities.” — Arielle Fleisher, Waymo
Waymo uses its perception hardware, including cameras and radar, as well as accelerometers and the vehicle’s physical feedback system, to log every pothole its vehicles encounter. These sensors detect physical changes to the road’s surface, such as tilt and movement when the vehicle encounters irregularities. Originally, Waymo knew it needed the ability to detect potholes so it could ensure that its vehicles slowed down to avoid damage or injury to the passenger. Later, the company realized this could be invaluable data for cities, too.
“It’s totally automated,” Fleisher said. “It’s from our systems. When we were putting this together, we did quality control just as part of our effort to make sure that we’re providing robust, high-quality data to cities.”
To be sure, Waymo’s vehicles sometimes have their own pothole trouble. A local news broadcast last year captured a Waymo driving through a water-filled pothole in San Francisco, seemingly without slowing down. Waymo spokesperson Ethan Teicher said that experiences like that help improve the vehicle’s autonomous technology, which is then spread across the whole fleet.
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