April 13, 2026
John Kopp/PhillyVoice
When fully autonomous Waymo cars begin operating in Philadelphia, they also will be used to help detect potholes, the company says. But Philly's streets might be particularly bumpy compared to cities where Waymo and Waze have begun mapping potholes.
When Waymo's self-driving vehicles eventually hit Philly's streets, they'll be watching for more than other cars and pedestrians. They'll also be monitoring the city's seemingly endless amount of potholes.
The autonomous vehicle company is teaming up with Waze, the GPS navigation app, to map potholes in five cities — with Philly to eventually join them. As Waymo cars cruise through the streets, they'll mark the locations of potholes. Waze will make that information available through its Waze for Cities tool and mobile app. Drivers drivers then can confirm the potholes are still there or note when they've been filled.
Waymo vehicles have been seen around Philadelphia for months, but they're currently only allowed to operate while a human is monitoring from the driver's seat. The company still needs state permission before it can operate the cars fully autonomously, but Waymo said it plans to bring this new pothole program to the city whenever that happens.
Since there's no driver at the helm, Waymo cars primarily detect potholes through road feel, spokesperson Ethan Teicher said. Feedback systems such as accelerometers note the bumps and vibrations associated with driving over a pothole, and that information can be verified through additional trips, among other methods.
When one of the cars encounters a pothole, it will attempt to go around it, Teicher said. If that's not possible, it usually will slow down to make the ride less bumpy for the passenger.
Pothole repairs are often reliant on 311 calls to notify city officials to their locations. Waze and Waymo said by sharing this data, municipalities can be more proactive about getting them filled in.
Waymo and Waze are starting their pothole mapping in five cities: San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Atlanta and Austin, Texas. Waymo already has located 500 potholes, the companies said.
"Potholes, they're not just a nuisance, they do cause safety issues, not just for drivers, but also for bicyclists and pedestrians," Teicher said. "So, we did want to (share this data), both to be responsive to that feedback, but also to try to further advance that safety mission that that we share with cities."
One noticeable difference with Philadelphia, though, is the weather changes that make potholes particularly common. Philly's roads endure a cycle of melting and refreezing during the late winter and early spring, when temperatures fluctuate as much as 20 or 30 degrees in just a few days. When that ice melts, the water can fall into small cracks and holes. When it freezes again, it expands, making crevices larger.
That could mean a lot of monitoring for Waymo. The Philadelphia Department of Streets repaired more than 60,000 potholes in 2025, and already has fixed 26,000 this year, CBS reported. PennDOT spokesperson Helen Reinbrecht told PhillyVoice in March that this year's winter was particular rough on Philly streets.
"We had a lot of freeze-thaw cycles, so that could definitely be contributing to the amount of potholes," Reinbrecht said.
In her 2027 budget, Mayor Cherelle Parker proposed a new 25-cent tax on retail deliveries, which would be charged to retailers, and produce about $7.1 million for a "pothole squad" to repair roads. If approved, that would fund about 24 full-time employees who would be exclusively focused on fixing potholes.
