French carmaker Citroën has called for greater use of artificial intelligence to tackle Britain’s escalating pothole crisis.
The manufacturer says AI should be deployed nationwide to monitor and report road defects, while utility companies should face tougher oversight to ensure roads are properly reinstated after excavation works, reports This Is Money.
Citroën estimates that repairing Britain’s pothole-riddled roads could unlock savings of at least £5.5 billion by reducing accidents and improving efficiency. Latest Department for Transport data suggests road defects contribute to 6 per cent of fatal or serious collisions.
With crashes costing society an estimated £54.7billion annually, eliminating pothole-related accidents could save around £3.3billion. The Chartered Institution of Highways & Transportation also believes introducing longer-term funding programmes could save local highways authorities a further £2.2 billion.
As part of its newly launched Better Roads Manifesto, Citroën has outlined six recommendations for local highways authorities and councils aimed at improving road conditions.
The proposals were developed with the support of Dave Gaster, a qualified highways engineer with more than 25 years of local government experience who has been researching pothole reporting for the best part of a decade.
Among the recommendations is the use of AI-powered technology to improve road inspections, reduce costs, generate better-quality data and enable more targeted repairs.
Citroën also wants local highways authorities to be given stronger powers to ensure utility firms properly repair roads after carrying out works, alongside the introduction of a rolling five-year government funding settlement. The company is also calling for a national road repair standard to ensure consistency in repair quality and enable authorities to be measured against common benchmarks.
Other recommendations include greater use of volunteers to help identify road defects and a more comprehensive road-cleaning strategy to remove potentially dangerous debris.
Greg Taylor, managing director of Citroën UK, said:
“Simply calling for more funding isn’t realistic, so we are suggesting practical, cost-effective and logical steps that national government, local highways authorities and the public can support to improve the quality of roads across Britain.”
(Picture: Citroën UK)
