Potholes, we can all see and ‘feel’ them, but it would appear that AI can too. In a bold move that blends cutting-edge technology with Surrey’s eternal war on potholes, the county is officially declaring: “Death to manual road inspections!” Highways inspectors, once noble warriors trudging along cratered streets armed with clipboards, are being replaced by AI-powered vehicles equipped with computer vision cameras. These road-sniffing robots will roam Surrey’s roads, sniffing out potholes like bloodhounds that went to MIT, while inspectors get to sit gloriously in their cars, honking lazily at unsuspecting potholes from a distance.
This technological revolution arises from a nearly £300 million fund to fix Surrey’s roads and pavements by 2028—a price tag that sounds suspiciously like the GDP of a small island nation . After being crowned as the UK’s monarch of pothole compensation claims (rising from a meager 734 in 2022 to a jaw-dropping 3,418 in 2023), Surrey County Council decided it was time to bring in the big guns—because clearly, doing the same thing was just punching potholes into multiplying.
Thanks to this AI wizardry provided by Route Reports, Surrey Highways vehicles will now double as pothole paparazzi, snapping glamour shots of their favorite road scars and slotting them straight into repair schedules. It’s basically Instagram for asphalt wounds . Even better, inspectors no longer have to leap heroically into traffic like stunt doubles in hi-vis vests. In theory, pothole detection now involves less street acrobatics and fewer close encounters with speeding lorries, making the job safer for everyone—except, perhaps, the potholes themselves .
So, while Surrey’s potholes spend their final days dodging AI-equipped road warriors, manual inspections roll off into the sunset like begrudging retirees. Whether this plan fills Surrey’s pothole-shaped void or the AI just starts looking for cracks in the universe, only time will tell. But one thing’s for sure: in Surrey, potholes are an endangered species, and the robots are here to finish the job.
