Cars Could Report Bad Roads With GM’s New Patent

Living in the Detroit metro area, I’ve become highly accustomed to poor pavement. That doesn’t mean that I like it, just that I’ve become used to it. So, if a company has an idea for improving road conditions, I’m certainly interested in hearing about it. General Motors has such an idea. As initially reported by GMAuthority, the company filed a patent (US 2025/0200526 A1) for a way to source data from Chevy Trailblazers to Cadillac Lyriqs to monitor road conditions. Ideally, this would be used to inform governments about where infrastructure dollars should go. We even have a couple of ideas how they could be used to help drivers more immediately, too. However, since this involves data from consumers’ vehicles, we also see risks to privacy.

Every Car Could Be A Pothole Detector

The modern car is stuffed full of sensors and computers. At every moment, it’s keeping track of speed, wheel rotation, even g forces. They often are literally watching the road with cameras and radar. This information is mostly used to help keep you safe and comfortable, as they can be used to keep your car between lanes, help stop it from hitting something, and even adjusting shock damping. Of course, in the world of the connected car, that data could be gathered and used for other purposes. GM’s idea is that certain information, such as those g forces and camera information, along with GPS data, could be used to monitor the condition of roads. Each car could report when it senses a particularly bad bump, and could report the time, location, and severity of that bump. That information could go into a cloud database, and with millions of cars providing the same kind of information, it would be possible to create detailed information about what roads are in need of repair. GM could then provide that data (probably for a fee) to companies and governments involved in infrastructure maintenance to know which roads are high priority. If all went well, governments could potentially address road issues sooner, and potentially more efficiently.

Surprisingly, this seems to be as far as GM goes in the patent. Something else the company could do is offer some of the road condition information to drivers. It could be integrated with navigation systems so that drivers could ask to avoid particularly damaged roads. We’re sure that owners of cars with extremely low-profile tires or low ground clearance would take advantage of it to avoid damaging their vehicles.

This Just Adds To Privacy Worries

Even though connected cars have brought useful things like over-the-air updates and impressive navigation features, they’re also creating problems with personal data. Not too long ago, GM got in trouble for collecting data on drivers and selling it to third parties, and the company now has restrictions on how it can collect and use data. That’s not to say that other companies are especially better, as the Mozilla Foundation reported that many other car companies collect lots of information on owners that could be used in ways that aren’t great for the owner. A big concern has been whether this information could get to insurance and credit reporting companies and could be used to raise rates or hurt scores. That’s just with sensors. More and more cameras are showing up in cars, and it came out a couple of years ago that Tesla employees were sharing video footage of different Tesla owners amongst themselves. Then, there’s the risk of data leaking, which could contain information such as locations, which could put people at risk. So the idea of collecting and using even more of that information is worrisome.

Source: US Patent and Trademark Office via GMAuthority