Honda and DriveOhio team up for new road safety initiative in which Honda vehicles are used to collect real-time data that can provide insight into potential problems and road deficiencies before they become a problem. Honda’s Proactive Road Maintenance system, under prototyping since 2021, uses “advanced vision and LiDAR sensors” to identify problems such as worn or obstructed road signs, damaged guardrails, rough roads and emerging potholes.
During the pilot, members of the Ohio Department of Transportation’s Smart Mobility Center drove the test vehicles on approximately 3,000 miles of roadway in central and southeastern Ohio. They covered a mix of urban and rural environments, in varying weather conditions and at different times of day.
ODOT operators were able to review any reported road or infrastructure deficiencies in real time using smart dashboards developed by Honda and technology company Parsons. The University of Cincinnati helped Honda install the sensors on its vehicles, led the development of the damage detection feature and assisted ODOT during the pilot project.
The data collected by the vehicles was processed by the Edge AI models and then transmitted to Honda’s own cloud platform. The system then automatically generated work orders for ODOT maintenance crews, in order of priority.
Although a pilot project of relatively limited scope, the Proactive Road Maintenance system performed well during the trial on a number of measurements, providing up to 99% accuracy in highlighting damaged or obstructed signs. Accuracy was 93 percent for damaged guardrails and a slightly lower 89 percent for pothole detection.
Honda says its technology could also detect very serious shoulder drops that were easy to miss during a routine visual inspection, while the system was also found to be reliable at measuring road roughness. The team that worked on the project estimated that if implemented on a larger scale, the automated system could save ODOT more than $4.5 million annually.
Honda and its partners are currently investigating ways to scale the Proactive Road Maintenance System prototype for real-world use. The automaker also says it aims to eventually have similar technology in its customers’ vehicles, which will be able to share their own sensing data anonymously and help create safer roads.
This article was originally published on Engadget at https://www.engadget.com/transportation/honda-vehicles-used-to-proactively-report-road-safety-issues-in-nation-first-pilot-151629967.html?src=rss
