Sensor detects pothole hazards in real time

An innovative ‘pothole alert’ research project could potentially save motorists billions of pounds in punctures, vehicle damage and road accidents every year, say researchers. Jaguar Land Rover is researching a new connected car technology that will allow a vehicle to identify the location and severity of potholes, broken drains and manhole covers, and then share this data in real-time via the cloud with other vehicles and with road authorities to help them prioritise repairs.
June 15, 2015 Read time: 3 mins

An innovative ‘pothole alert’ research project could potentially save motorists billions of pounds in punctures, vehicle damage and road accidents every year, say researchers.

7998 Jaguar Land Rover is researching a new connected car technology that will allow a vehicle to identify the location and severity of potholes, broken drains and manhole covers, and then share this data in real-time via the cloud with other vehicles and with road authorities to help them prioritise repairs.

The company’s MagneRide technology-equipped Range Rover Evoque and Discovery Sport vehicles feature sophisticated sensors that allow the vehicle to profile the road surface under the wheels and identify potholes, raised manholes and broken drain covers. By monitoring the motion of the vehicle and changes in the height of the suspension, the car is able to continuously adjust the vehicle's suspension characteristics, giving passengers a more comfortable ride over uneven and damaged road surfaces.

Dr Mike Bell, Global Connected Car director of Jaguar Land Rover, said: “While this gives our customers a more comfortable ride, we think there is a huge opportunity to turn the information from these vehicle sensors into 'big data' and share it for the benefit of other road users. This could help prevent billions of pounds of vehicle damage and make road repairs more effective."

The next stage of the project involves installing new road surface sensing technology in the Range Rover Evoque research vehicle, including an advanced forward-facing stereo digital camera which scans the road ahead to detect potholes and predict how severe they are before the vehicle gets near them.

Jaguar Land Rover's research team will also be working with innovation partner Coventry City Council to understand how road profile information could be shared with road authorities, and exactly what data would be most useful for their roads maintenance teams to identify and prioritise repairs.

The project will also investigate whether Jaguar Land Rover's experimental camera could take an image of the pothole or damaged manhole - and share this with the road authorities, together with a GPS location.

"Ultimately, sensing the road ahead and assessing hazards is a key building block on our journey to the autonomous car,” says Bell. “In the future, we are looking to develop systems that could automatically guide a car around potholes without the car leaving its lane and causing a danger to other drivers. If the pothole hazard was significant enough, safety systems could slow or even stop the car to minimise the impact. This could all help make future autonomous driving a safe and enjoyable reality."

For more information on companies in this article

Related Content

  • A smarter path into the future
    November 11, 2015
    The forthcoming Highways UK event at the ExCel in London on 25 and 26 November will debate the future of smart roads, what they will look like and whether they are actually needed, along with in-car robotics and communication with intelligent infrastructure. Daniel Ruiz, Managing Director at Imtech Traffic and Infra UK will be debating the many cultural and social challenges of intelligent transport systems with Isabel Dedring, Deputy Mayor for Transport at the GLA and others in an agenda-setting Highway
    Read More
  • New Hampshire drivers get real time traffic information online
    January 3, 2013
    As part of its ongoing efforts to bring real-time traveller information to New Hampshire motorists, the New Hampshire Department of Transportation (NHDOT) has partnered with TrafficLand, a Virginia-based company, to provide real-time viewing access to the NHDOT's highway cameras. The public can now view traffic and road conditions from NHDOT cameras in ten regions of the state via the TrafficLand website, www.Trafficland.com. The camera locations are tied to interactive Google maps, which display travel sp
    Read More
  • Regulation time-lag will hit driverless technology hard says leading consultancy BDO
    August 8, 2018
    The legislation surrounding driverless cars is lagging so far behind the technology involved that the industry is unlikely to see a regulatory framework in place any time soon says leading international business, finance and taxation consultancy BDO. And IEEE, "the world’s largest technical professional organisation dedicated to advancing technology for the benefit of humanity" can only see problems ahead as the politicians fall further and further behind. BDO has been looking at a report from www.Spectr
    Read More
  • Aimsun takes part in driver data study to improve C/AVs
    November 14, 2018
    Aimsun is taking part in a UK study which is using human driver data to help improve the performance and acceptability of connected and autonomous vehicles (C/AVs). The one-year project, Learning through Ambient Driving Styles for Autonomous Vehicles (LAMBDA-V), will also look at how driver behaviour can be analysed and used to accelerate the adoption of C/AVs. Aimsun says new rules for safer and more efficient driving behaviour could be created from existing vehicles, based on road laws and on how h
    Read More

Highlighted Content