Waymo and Waze Launch Pothole Reporting Pilot: How Robotaxis Could Change Road Repairs in Five US Metro Areas
Waymo is partnering with Waze to automatically flag potholes to local transportation officials, using sensor data gathered by its autonomous vehicles as they operate in major US cities.
The initiative aims to speed up how quickly road hazards are identified, verified and prioritized for repair.
The pilot is debuting across five metro areas where Waymo has an established presence: the San Francisco Bay Area, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin and Atlanta. Waymo says its vehicles rely on a mix of perception and physical feedback to detect road surface issues while driving normal routes.
How the data will reach cities?
The reports will feed into Waze for Cities, a platform used by municipalities and state departments of transportation to view road issues and traffic disruptions.
The pothole information will be offered at no cost, and everyday Waze users may also see the same alerts in the app.
Waymo said it has already identified about 500 potholes in the areas included in the initial rollout. Drivers can confirm or dispute reports in Waze, a step intended to improve accuracy and reduce false positives before agencies dispatch crews.
Why it matters for pothole response?
Many US cities still depend heavily on 311 calls and scheduled manual inspections to find potholes, processes that can lag behind real-world road deterioration. By comparison, fleets that drive daily can provide more frequent updates, particularly after storms or heavy traffic.
Waymo has also framed the project as a practical safety and comfort benefit for riders, since smoother roads can reduce jolts and tire damage on routes its robotaxis travel repeatedly.
Still, the partnership does not require cities to fix every reported defect, and budgets and staffing remain the deciding factors.
San Jose Mayor Matt Mahan, whose city sits within Waymo’s broader Bay Area footprint, said the effort could complement existing municipal detection work using cameras on city vehicles. He added that earlier visibility into potholes could help public works teams respond more efficiently.
What comes next for the pilot?
Waymo and Waze say they plan to expand to additional locations, including regions where winter freeze-thaw cycles accelerate pavement damage.
If the pilot proves reliable, it could become a template for how autonomous fleets share infrastructure insights beyond traffic flow and incident reporting.
The program also highlights a broader trend: connected vehicles generating real-time civic data, with private platforms acting as a bridge between drivers and local governments. For cities, the test will be whether automated detection translates into faster repairs, not just more notifications.
