Potholes and other road damage are not only annoying to drivers, but can also be dangerous. The Dresden start-up Cyface set itself the goal of improving the condition of roads in Germany. The idea behind it is both simple and ingenious: with their crowd-sourcing platform the three founders of the company build on the participation of car and motorcycle drivers as well as cyclists. To collect data, all each citizen needs is a smartphone and the Cyface app.
With the help of acceleration sensors, GPS, and a gyroscope, every modern mobile phone can record the required shock and vibration data. An algorithm processes the anonymous raw data, aggregates it, and evaluates it. This provides a realistic picture of the condition of the road – not through the use of expensive measuring technology, but through the participation of citizens. Identifying weak points of traffic routes pays off doubly: the data serve as a basis for improving roads and at the same time cater to intelligent navigation and avoidance of damaged roads in route planning.