Modern cars are already equipped with various cameras and sensors that monitor other cars, cyclists and pedestrians to reduce or avoid collisions with them, and there is more of that technology coming fast, especially for autonomous taxis. But what if existing technology could report bad potholes or even missing lane markings and signage? Honda knows.

With an extensive manufacturing and development hub in Ohio, Honda has partnered with the DriveOhio division of the Ohio Department of Transportation for a two-year study evaluating whether vehicle-generated data is effective in reporting roads that need improvement or lack of signage and directions to the transportation agency. The two-year pilot program, also with the University of Cincinnati, Parsons Corporation and i-Probe Inc, involved Ohio DOT workers driving Hondas equipped with various cameras and Lidar to cover about 3,000 miles of state roads.

Honda started a prototype Proactive Roadway Maintenance System in 2021with that program set up to detect problems including poor road quality for any type of vehicle, broken guardrails or road barriers, steep or deteriorating shoulder drops, and even insufficient or missing road striping and damaged or destroyed signage.

“Production vehicle sensors are designed for driving and safety – not for asset monitoring – but their ability to collect data continuously during daily driving creates incredible value at scale,” Daisuke Oshima, president and CEO of i-Probe, said Thursday in a statement. “Unlocking that value requires analytics specifically designed to identify these characteristics, and this project shows how vehicle sensor data can complement existing inspection programs and support more proactive asset management.”

Human employees verify what the cameras pick up and report to the transportation department using Parsons technology and i-Robot verifies the data and more subjective critiques of road roughness and quality of lane markings and signage. Ultimately, the program proved successful 99% of the time for finding broken or hidden signs, 93% for broken guardrails and 89% for potholes, according to Honda.

“By using real-time vehicle data to identify road hazards and infrastructure issues, Honda, ODOT and our project partners are demonstrating how smarter, adaptive solutions can improve safety, reduce costs and improve safety for all road users,” Sue Bai, chief engineer, Sustainability and Business Development at American Honda, said in a statement Thursday.

Honda said the Ohio DOT will save $4.5 million in road-related maintenance costs on the system due to reduced time spent on manual inspections, better scheduling of repairs and better planning for preventative maintenance. The automaker said it wants the next phase of testing to find ways for its drivers to anonymously share data with the right agency and report problems on roads traveled, or find areas that need to be repaired in the future.