It can certainly be frustrating driving down a road that is filled with nothing but potholes and cracked up cement. Potholes are incredibly inconvenient, from driving slow to avoid them and sometimes paying a hefty bill to fix any damages from hitting one. Luckily, worrying about potholes and bumpy drives may be a thing of the past. That is, if Google’s latest patent fulfills and hits production. Apparently this patent focuses on collecting data from vehicles on the road in which case it can reassess your designated location to offer a less bumpy route. However, with all patents, we may never see Google release this service.
As mentioned, potholes are a major struggle for all of us, whether you’re at the driving age or not. They can cause a cluster with traffic while also drivers who do not catch the pothole in time may find themselves in a pretty serious accident. Finding potholes and fixing them is not always an easy task as well but with this new patent by Google, we can locate potholes, avoid them and alert the appropriate city that a pothole is in need of being filled. The way this patent works is that Google will place sensors on vehicles that will be able to signal when the vehicle hits a pothole or is consistently vibrating due to a poorly maintained road. From there, the signal would be tracked by also using the vehicle GPS navigation system.
With this newly adopted knowledge that is constantly changing, Google could make adjustments to your GPS route. Much like how most GPS systems already make the necessary changes when it recognizes traffic slowing down, the same could be said through Google Maps but with a view to catering to road conditions. Because this is just a patent idea right now, it will be interesting to see if Google will develop the necessary sensors and service to place on their driverless vehicles, in order to map out various city roads. Currently, there doesn’t seem to be any announcement that Google will be placing these sensors on their vehicles just yet.