Honda and DriveOhio Complete Pilot of Proactive Roadway System

Honda reports results of a two-year pilot with DriveOhio, using vehicle data and AI to detect road defects, improve safety, and support proactive roadway maintenance.

Honda and DriveOhio have completed a two-year pilot project that could reshape how road infrastructure is maintained in the United States. The initiative introduced the nation’s first proactive roadway maintenance system capable of automatically identifying road and infrastructure deficiencies using real-time vehicle-generated data.

The project was carried out with the Ohio Department of Transportation in collaboration with i-Probe Inc., Parsons Corporation and the University of Cincinnati. During the pilot, Honda test vehicles equipped with cameras, LiDAR and edge-based AI software covered approximately 3,000 miles of roads across central and southeastern Ohio, including both urban and rural routes under varied weather and lighting conditions.

The system detected a wide range of issues, including worn or obstructed road signs, damaged guardrails, developing potholes with precise location data, hazardous shoulder drop-offs, insufficient lane markings and overall road roughness. Testing results showed detection accuracy of 99% for road signs, 93% for guardrails and an average of 89% for potholes, confirming the technical feasibility of automated roadway inspections.

Collected data was processed on the vehicle, transmitted to Honda’s cloud platform and integrated into the Parsons iNET Asset Guardian system. This workflow enabled the automatic generation and prioritization of maintenance work orders based on severity and proximity, while allowing ODOT teams to cross-check findings against traditional visual inspections.

Project partners estimate that automated road condition detection could save Ohio more than $4.5 million annually by reducing manual inspection time, optimizing maintenance schedules and preventing costly deferred repairs. The approach also improves safety for maintenance crews by limiting their exposure to live traffic.

As testing moves forward, the team is exploring how the system could be scaled for real-world operations. Honda has indicated that future development may include anonymized data sharing from customer vehicles, potentially allowing everyday drivers to contribute directly to safer and better-maintained roadways.