{"id":295596,"date":"2017-02-19T05:41:39","date_gmt":"2017-02-19T05:41:39","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/citifmonline.com\/?p=295596"},"modified":"2017-02-19T05:41:39","modified_gmt":"2017-02-19T05:41:39","slug":"ford-developing-pothole-alert-system-for-drivers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/citifmonline.com\/2017\/02\/ford-developing-pothole-alert-system-for-drivers\/","title":{"rendered":"Ford developing pothole alert system for drivers"},"content":{"rendered":"
Carmaker Ford has said it is experimenting with technology to detect potholes and warn drivers of their locations.<\/p>\n
Cars equipped with cameras could constantly scan roads during journeys, with resulting data on potholes displayed on other drivers’ dashboards.<\/p>\n
The idea is being tested at the firm’s research centre in Aachen, Germany.<\/p>\n
One expert said altering routes to avoid potholes might not always be possible.<\/p>\n
“A virtual pothole map could highlight a new pothole the minute it appears and almost immediately warn other drivers that there is a hazard ahead,” said Uwe Hoffmann, a research engineer at Ford.<\/p>\n
“Our cars already feature sensors that detect potholes and now we are looking at taking this to the next level.”<\/p>\n
Data driven<\/strong><\/p>\n Pothole-sensing technology has been in development for some years now, says Toby Breckon, a computer vision expert at Durham University.<\/p>\n “I’m pretty convinced that the pothole sensing is good – though I would imagine with any pothole detection there may be issues with snow and ice,” he told the BBC.<\/p>\n The real question is what is done with the data, he says. “At the moment, your sat-nav picks up traffic and road hazards like blockages – that’s very common – could this be an extra layer to that?”<\/p>\n In 2015, Jaguar Land Rover said it was working on a system to automatically gather information about potholes from cars fitted with sensors.<\/p>\n Nottingham Trent University has also been developing a smart system to do this.<\/p>\n Plus, earlier this year, City of York Council announced it would fit pothole detecting cameras to refuse vehicles in order to gather road surface data and better target repairs.<\/p>\n