Honda, DriveOhio complete pilot of nation’s first Proactive Roadway Maintenance System
Winter Storm Fern delivered a stark reminder of how much road conditions can affect daily life in Logan County. The storm brought the county’s first Level 3 snow emergency since December 2016, closed schools across the region and turned the morning commute into anything but routine.
Snow-covered roads limited travel and reduced visibility making even familiar drives feel uncertain. The disruption underscores how closely safety, mobility and daily routines are tied to the condition of local roadways.
As residents worked their way through those challenges, a new technology being developed by Honda in partnership with the Ohio Department of Transportation is offering a glimpse at how future innovations could help improve roadway safety, maintenance and everyday driving for local motorists.
Honda and ODOT’s smart mobility hub, DriveOhio, recently completed a two-year pilot project testing a prototype Proactive Roadway Maintenance System that uses vehicle-mounted cameras, LiDAR sensors and artificial intelligence to automatically detect roadway and roadside deficiencies. The project was conducted in collaboration with technology partners i-Probe Inc., Parsons Corporation and the University of Cincinnati.
During the pilot, ODOT team members drove Honda test vehicles across approximately 3,000 miles of roads in central and southeastern Ohio, covering rural and urban routes under a wide range of real-world conditions. The system identified worn or obstructed road signs, damaged guardrails and cable barriers, potholes, shoulder drop-offs, faded lane markings and rough road surfaces.
According to project results, the system achieved a 99 percent accuracy rate for detecting damaged or obstructed signs, 93 percent accuracy for damaged guardrails, and an average of 89 percent accuracy for pothole detection.
As the vehicles collected data, potential problem areas were reviewed by ODOT staff in real time through web-based dashboards. Information from the vehicles was processed using edge-based artificial intelligence, transmitted to a cloud platform and integrated into a maintenance management system capable of generating prioritized work orders based on severity and location.
ODOT officials estimate the technology could save the state more than $4.5 million annually by reducing the need for manual inspections, improving maintenance scheduling and identifying problems earlier — before they become more costly to repair. The system also improves safety by limiting the amount of time maintenance crews spend working near live traffic.
Insights from the pilot showed that only a small percentage of roads had insufficient lane markings, suggesting restriping schedules could be better targeted. The system also proved effective at identifying severe shoulder drop-offs and subtle road roughness issues that are often difficult to detect during routine visual inspections.
Project leaders say the technology could eventually expand beyond test vehicles. Future phases are expected to explore how anonymized, crowd-sourced vehicle data from everyday drivers could help transportation agencies monitor road conditions more continuously and respond more quickly to emerging hazards.
Across Ohio, those advancements could mean fewer roadway hazards, faster repairs and safer travel year-round.
CLICK HERE to watch a quick video of the Proactive Roadway Maintenance System testing.
Source: Honda
