With 23,000 miles of streets, it is undoubtedly a challenge to keep up with city roads, and recent storms have only served to exacerbate the situation. With streets riddled with potholes, driving has become a serious risk to the millions of residents who traverse them every day.
“I’ve been a gig driver for over 10 years in Los Angeles, and I can say the problem has worsened over the years,” says Carlo St. Juste II, Owner of DeliverySocal.com. “I see areas that could use road repair almost daily.”
Elaine Warren, Founder and CEO of Family Cruise Companion, echoes that sentiment, saying potholes can leave tourists with a sour memory. “Potholes are absolutely something visitors notice in Los Angeles, especially if they are renting a car and not used to the road conditions,” she says.
“When you are navigating an unfamiliar city, you are already relying heavily on maps and guidance apps,” Warren explains. “Add uneven road surfaces or unexpected hazards into that mix, and it creates a layer of stress that should not be part of a holiday.”
A disappointing 312 streets were repaved in 2024. 2025 was even worse, with the city failing to resurface a single street between July and December 2025.
“The continued poor rating of Los Angeles roads continues to place Los Angeles among the top three worst cities for road quality in the United States,” says Mark Friend, Company Director at Classroom365, adding that there is “an average loss of $600 per driver assessed annually for vehicle damage associated with potholes.”
Meanwhile, the city continues its payouts to those affected. Between 2024 and 2025 alone, the city paid out over $5.4 million.
“Drivers do have legal grounds to pursue action against a city for pothole-related damage, but it is more difficult than most people expect,” explains Benson Varghese, Board Certified Criminal Lawyer of Versus Texas. “In most jurisdictions, including places like Los Angeles, you typically have to show that the city had actual or constructive notice of the pothole and failed to repair it within a reasonable period.”
“The result,” Varghese explains, “is that while claims are possible, they tend to be very fact specific and require clear evidence that the city knew about the hazard and did not act.”
Media coverage, sparked by a feature by The Future, snapped the city into action.
By February 2026, the city had filled 10,000 potholes, and that same month, they announced plans to repave at least 120 lane miles of city streets before the end of the year.
Now Waze and Waymo are stepping up, offering their technology to address the problem.
An April 2026 press release announced the pilot program that plans to leverage Waymo’s perception and physical feedback systems to identify and report potholes through the city. Waymo’s self-driving vehicles will identify potholes throughout the city, with drivers able to self-report via Waze as well.
Arielle Fleisher, Waymo’s Policy Development and Research Manager, explains, “We want to build on the safety benefits of our service by partnering with organizations and city officials to help improve the infrastructure we all depend on.”
Through the free Waze for Cities platform, this data will be accessible to city officials and the California Department of Transportation, enabling these decision-makers to benefit from real-time data sharing when determining city budgets and planning repairs.
“Closer integration with city maintenance systems would make the data actionable. Detection is useful, but resolution is where the real impact sits,” says Taimur Ijlal, Information Security Leader at Proxy Coupons.
There are some challenges, of course.
“From a technical standpoint, the biggest challenge is data accuracy at scale. Detecting a pothole is not the same as confirming it is still there minutes or hours later,” explains Ijal. “I would prioritize confidence scoring that is visible to users. Not every pothole detection should be treated equally, so showing whether something is highly verified or newly detected helps drivers make better decisions.”
“Using historical data, weather patterns, and traffic load to anticipate where potholes are likely to form would move this from reactive to proactive,” adds Ijal.
In addition to LA, the program is coming to high-problem areas, including San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, and Atlanta.
“Waymo is showing the good neighbor principle in action, sharing data that helps cities fix problems faster and make streets safer for everyone,” says Sarah Kaufman, Director of the New York University Rudin Center for Transportation.