The C7 Corvette has been plagued for years with the issue of cracked wheels sometimes caused by potholes, or at least that’s where General Motors has tried to shift the blame in some cases.
Because of weather conditions and limited tax dollars, potholes will probably always be around.
But recently, GM filed a patent for a new system that automatically identifies road hazards like potholes, flooding, and damaged road signs through the use of sensors and cameras already in place on many of its newer vehicles and then compiles a report from this information and forwards it to governmental authorities in charge of fixing them. In theory, this could speed up the repairs.
Of course, the government would have to agree to participate in any such program, which seems to be a no-brainer since currently it has to rely on a hit-or-miss system through phone calls or e-mails from the public or perhaps through the software app Waze, which allows users to report such road hazards.
GM’s new system would apparently make identification of such road issues automatic through the use of GPS hardware to determine the location of an issue, with cameras, infrared detectors, and LiDAR sensors taking photos and collecting more information about the problem. Then, it would just become a matter of getting the proper governmental parties to pay attention and assign crews to repair them.
