Alphabet’s two companies, Waymo and Waze, announced on April 9th that they will join forces to detect road potholes and provide information to government agencies to improve road repair efficiency.
Waymo vehicles are equipped with a large number of cameras and sensors. The company stated that it will use its feedback system to detect potholes and share information through the Waze platform for users to verify.
Waze is a GPS navigation application that allows drivers to alert other users through real-time updates. The software was acquired by Google, a subsidiary of Alphabet, for about $1.1 billion in 2013.
Waymo was originally launched in 2009 as Google’s self-driving car project but was spun off into an independent company under Alphabet in 2016. The company stated that the pothole program stemmed from feedback collected from city officials over the years to address deficiencies in reporting mechanisms.
Andrew Stober, a strategic partnerships manager at Waze, stated, “This pilot program with Waymo adds another data source to our efforts, providing cities with a clearer understanding of road conditions through the Waze for Cities platform.”
Waze and Waymo will launch pilot programs in five regions, including the San Francisco Bay Area (where both companies are headquartered in Mountain View) as well as the Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta metropolitan areas.
Waymo has identified approximately 500 potholes in the mentioned regions and plans to expand the program to other service cities. Waymo is currently operating in Dallas, Houston, Miami, Nashville, Orlando, and San Antonio.
Nashville is the latest location for Waymo, with services gradually opening to local users since April 7th. The company also announced in February that it will expand its operations to Charlotte, Chicago, and Sacramento, with a fleet already deployed in Sacramento to begin collecting local road data.