Skip to main content

The latest weapon in the fight against potholes? Your smartphone

Roadbotics

Keeping tabs on the quality of roadways isn’t an easy job. With tens of thousands of miles for public officials to monitor, and a limited budget to do so with, it’s no surprise that some public roads can fall into a state of disrepair that makes them unpleasant to drive on.

That’s something a tech company with the brilliant (if you love puns as much as we do!) name RoadBotics is hoping to help solve. It has developed some smart AI algorithms that work with the cameras found in smartphones to continuously monitor road conditions as drivers travel around the United States. Its deep learning technology is designed to spot the kind of anomalies that experienced roadway inspectors are trained to identify. It then uses this data to create a dynamic map so that public officials can understand the status of their roads, streets, bike paths, walkways and bridges in almost real-time.

“We use a standard smartphone and any vehicle, in combination with our cloud-based deep learning platform, to assess the quality of roadways including road surfaces, signage and other common features of urban, rural roads and highways,” RoadBotics CEO Mark DeSantis told Digital Trends. “A standard cell phone is mounted anywhere on a dash or windshield with the phone’s camera pointed forward. The app is turned on and begins collecting video data. That video data is stored on the phone until the the phone sees a friendly Wi-Fi, at which point all of the image data is automatically uploaded to our platform, which then produces a multicolored road network assessment map.”

The technology is currently being used in 22 municipalities, towns, cities, and counties across eight states. DeSantis said that the first deployment outside the U.S. is set to be announced soon.

“Currently, we collect the data on behalf of our customers to add to our customer’s convenience as well as learn in detail some of the challenges with collecting data,” he said. “However, we’ve been testing several fleet, customer and even crowd-sourced data collection tools.”

Whether private citizens would be willing to collect data for their public officials in exchange for better maintained roadways remains to be seen. Hey, maybe local governments could throw in a small tax credit as a thank you to users who were happy to help!

Editors' Recommendations

Luke Dormehl
I'm a UK-based tech writer covering Cool Tech at Digital Trends. I've also written for Fast Company, Wired, the Guardian…
This bizarre AI device may replace your smartphone in the future
A demo of Humane's wearable, projecting an incoming phone call onto someone's hand.

It's fun to imagine what technological breakthrough will eventually replace our smartphones. Will it be AR headsets? Microchips in our brain? Something else entirely? Well, at least according to one company, it may be a small, screenless wearable you carry around in your shirt pocket.

On April 21, leaked footage from an upcoming TED talk revealed photos and videos of the upcoming wearable from Humane — a tech startup led by former Apple employees Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno. The full TED talk demoing the Humane wearable is expected to go live on April 22, but even from the early bits we've seen so far, it looks like a fascinating (and strange) alternative to the smartphone.
What is the Humane wearable?

Read more
This app is like ChatGPT for your email, and it changed my life
Shortwave email app icon

I can write a few thousand words about how emails are the bane of my existence, but I have to sip the bitter nectar of my professional reality every morning as I open my eyes and tap on the barrage of Gmail notifications on my phone. It also doesn’t help that every single email client that I have tried so far, both paid and free, has promised me an inbox utopia, then underwhelmed me big time. In a nutshell, it’s a reality filled with the non-charming chore of managing an inbox that never shuts down.

That’s where Shortwave comes into the picture. It's an email client that again claims to redefine how you interact with your emails. Just the way ChatGPT saves you the drudgery of sifting through web search results, and instead presents a summary of the best answer pulled from multiple sources, Shortwave does the same for long emails by presenting them in a condensed and concise form. 
How an AI summarizes your emails

Read more
How your smartphone could replace a professional camera in 2023
A close up of the Tecno Phantom X2 Pro's camera.

The steady decline in digital camera sales is barely a mystery. Mobile phones have largely replaced point-and-shoot cameras and are now coming after more expensive and professional-grade equipment. 2023 is set to witness various emerging trends that could result in mobile phones replacing DSLR cameras.

While hardware is at the forefront of this transition, we also expect advancements in computational photography and videography, along with reliance on machine learning tools. Here are the top reasons why camera brands need to acknowledge and be wary of smartphone cameras.
1-inch sensors are becoming mainstream

Read more