Waymo robotaxis tracks potholes and shares that data with Waze users

Two Alphabet-owned companies are teaming up to find potholes and share them with cities.

Waymo and Waze on Thursday announced a data-sharing pilot program that would move pothole data collected by robots to the free Waze platform designed for cities. Any city or state where Waymo operates will be able to access that data as the program expands.

Waymo is already commercially operational in 11 cities and is being tested in more. For now, the pilot will focus on five initial markets — Austin, Atlanta, Los Angeles, Phoenix, and the San Francisco Bay Area, where Waymo says it has already identified about 500 potholes. The partnership is expected to expand to include more cities over time.

However, cities will not be the only recipients of this data. Anyone with the Waze app in cities where Waymo operates will also be able to access that data and, incidentally, help verify the accuracy of pothole locations.

Waze users already have the ability to report bugs in the app. The pilot program aims to increase and expand these reports, and make them readily available to cities.

Equipped with cameras, lidar, radar and other sensors, Waymo’s robotic cars are ideal tools for collecting data about potholes and other road hazards.

Other companies use sensors in cars, or even phones, to track traffic patterns and other information, which can be sold or shared. Waymo appears to be the first company to use robotaxis to do this job.

It makes sense why. Robotaxi companies need to win cities. Providing potentially useful data about potholes, or even other dangerous road conditions, can help build goodwill. For now, Waymo is largely bearing the brunt of this burden as it ramps up its expansion to more than 20 cities this year.

Waymo noted in its blog post that the idea came from city officials who shared feedback over the years. Waymo said the pilot aims to help close reporting gaps and support cities’ efforts to maintain safer streets.

“Waymo is demonstrating the Good Neighbor Principle in action: sharing data that helps cities solve problems faster and make streets safer for everyone,” Sarah Kaufman, director of New York University’s Rudin Center for Transportation, said in a statement on the Waymo blog. “It’s a simple step, but it reflects a broader principle of responsibility, which is that businesses operating on public streets can help improve them.”