The jolt rattled your teeth, and for a split second, you wondered if your suspension had finally given up the ghost. Swerving to avoid the crater, you mutter a curse, thinking, “Someone should really fix that.” What if your car could be the one to report it?
Modern vehicles are rolling around with cameras, radar, and all sorts of sensors designed to prevent accidents. Honda wondered if all that tech could pull double duty: spotting potholes, faded lane markings, and busted signage.
With a major manufacturing and development base in Ohio, Honda teamed up with DriveOhio (part of the Ohio Department of Transportation) to see if car-sourced data could flag roads that need attention. For two years, they ran a pilot program, also collaborating with the University of Cincinnati, Parsons Corporation, and i-Probe Inc. Ohio DOT employees drove specially equipped Hondas over 4,800 km (3,000 miles) of Ohio roads.
Sensing the Roads: Honda’s Prototype System
Imagine a world where your daily commute actively contributes to road maintenance. Honda’s not just imagining it; they’re building it.
Back in 2021, Honda launched a prototype Proactive Roadway Maintenance System. It’s designed to detect all sorts of problems: poor road surfaces, damaged guardrails, dangerous shoulder drop-offs, and even missing or worn lane markings and signs. Think of it as a distributed sensor network riding around on four wheels.
“Production vehicle sensors are designed primarily for driving and safety – not for asset monitoring – but their ability to collect data continuously during daily driving creates unique value at scale,” said i-Probe CEO, Daisuke Oshima. “Unlocking that value requires analytics specifically designed to account for these characteristics, and this project shows how vehicle sensor data can complement existing inspection programs and support more proactive asset management.”
Real-World Results: How Well Did It Work?
Think about all the small imperfections you see on the road every day. Could a machine really pick them up as accurately as a human?
Human workers verified the camera data, reporting their findings to the transportation department using Parsons’ technology. i-Robot then validated the data, adding more subjective assessments of road roughness and the quality of lane markings and signage. The results were impressive. According to Honda, the system had a 99% success rate for spotting damaged or obscured signs, 93% for damaged guardrails, and 89% for potholes. It’s not perfect, but it’s a darn good start.
Could This System Actually Save Money?
According to Honda, Ohio’s DOT could save USD 4.5 million (€4.17 million) in road maintenance costs using such a system. The savings come from reduced manual inspections, better repair scheduling, and more effective preventative maintenance. In other words, the system pays for itself by preventing bigger problems down the road – no pun intended.
“By using real-time vehicle data to detect road hazards and infrastructure issues, Honda, ODOT and our project partners are demonstrating how smarter, adaptive solutions can enhance safety, reduce costs and enhance safety for everyone sharing the road,” said Sue Bai, chief engineer, Sustainability and Business Development at American Honda.
The Future of Road Repair: Crowdsourced Data?
Our cars could become extensions of our senses, feeding information back to a central authority. It’s like having a million tiny inspectors constantly monitoring the roads. But who controls that data, and how is it used?
Honda wants to take the next phase of testing to find ways for its drivers to anonymously share data with the correct agency and report problems with roads traveled, or to find areas that could need repair in the future. The roads we drive every day are like a shared digital canvas, and our cars could be the brushes that paint a picture of what needs fixing. But as the saying goes, if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. Would you be willing to trade your data for smoother roads?