A portable scanner for Departments of Transportation that gives real time data on the location and severity of potholes in order to increase road repair efficiency.
SONOBAR
Shubham Bhushan Desai (Esdee)
Tandon, Mechatronics & Robotics
Stern,
Business and Political Economy
Jordan Birnbaum
Christian Lourido
Akshay Vijayan Kutty
Christopher Ren
Tandon, Mechatronics & Robotics
Tandon, Mechatronics & Robotics
Tandon, Mechatronics & Robotics
Number of Interviews Attempted: 36
Number of Voicemails Left: 22
Number of Calls Taken then Interview Denials: 5
Number of Interviews Successful: 2
Nominations: Biggest Oof
Lesson: Don’t target DOT on Veteran’s Day Weekend.
Customer Archetype Profile (Hypothesized)
Describe the person: name, age, relevant personal info
Image
Jobs To Be Done
Existing Solutions
How They Buy
Pains
Gains
Influencers
Barriers
[Name?], 30s-40s, DoT Commissioner of large cities responsible for efficient pothole fixing.
Self-report through 311 calls
1) Find potholes throughout jurisdiction before they cause too much damage
2) Send out crews to fix potholes fast
Government Bureaucracy/ Slow Adoption
Budget Policy of Town/City Gov’ts
Administration (public approval)
Constituents (less damage)
Quick info (real-time)
Accurate info
$ saved = approval
Unreliable info
Infrequent info
Slow fixes/Waste
Discretionary Budget
Must be justifiable to local gov’t / treasury
Value Proposition
Gains:
Pains:
Solution:
Portable road scanner that can:
Accurate data = Efficient repair
Time/Money saved = Public approval
No more subjective, imprecise, and infrequent self-reports
Less wasted resources that can be diverted to other projects
How It Went...
Hypothesis: Unreliable data collection is one of the main contributors to inefficient road repair. (Pain Point)
Experiment: Cold-calling DoTs and 311 Operators around the country* to ask them about their largest challenges.
Insights:
* ”Around the country” = cities with lots of potholes (NYC, Boston, DC, Chicago, Seattle, Tucson)
Insight 1: 311 has problems
Infrequency:
“There’s so many potholes in the city, and most people really don’t report them; they probably don’t even know they can report them or where to report them. So some just go unnoticed until they become huge...and start causing damage to property and … cars” (Lisa, NYC 311 Operator).
Imprecision:
“We just ask the constituent what is the general size of the pothole and that’s all the information that the report really asks for” (Isabella, Boston 311 Operator).
Insight 2: Cities are willing to implement basic tech solutions
Cities like Boston have integrated rudimentary app reporting:
“The Boston 311 app is just a way for constituents to communicate with us. And we also have our Twitter feed that you can report [a pothole] on through Boston 311. The way that that works is that it still comes to us [the 311 office] and we’re the ones who actually have to put it in the system, so it’s not like an automatic thing ... it comes to us and we’re the ones that make sure it’s correct and also that it’s being directed to the proper department” (Isabella, Boston 311 Operator).
Insight 3: City roads have unique demands
Constant Usage Demands Quick Maintenance:
“I know that the potholes on the highway take 30 days [to repair], but I know street potholes usually are filled within 15 days because more people drive and stop ... on streets as opposed to highways” (Lisa, NYC 311 Operator).
Demand for Maintenance Depends on the Season:
“It just depends on the season, because during the winter when it’s snowing and there’s salt on the road … there’s more damage done on the roadway ... But during the spring and summertime, there’s really not as many pothole calls. Even during the fall … because they usually get fixed during the summertime” (Isabella, Boston 311 Operator).
Insight 4: We are not alone
Insight 4: We are not alone (Pt. 2)
Hypotheses We’d Still Like to Test...
1. Departments of Transportation are willing to hook up scanners to municipal vehicles (buses, taxis, garbage collection, etc.)
2. Departments of Transportation with more efficient pothole repair save more money compared to those that are inefficient.
3. Road crews would work more effectively if they had more specific and accurate data about potholes beforehand.
4. Scanners would save more in prevented damages and conserved resources than they would cost to implement.
5. Smaller townships would be just as willing as cities to adopt scanning tech to cut road damage costs.
Next Steps
a) Get access to 311 centers to see how they’re organized / how technologically advanced they are.
b) Contact road crews and figure out what information they need to do job efficiently vs. what information they get from current system.
c) Scope out potential competitors and look for gaps in their services
(especially SQUID and Roadbotics).
d) Look into municipal data analytics offices to see if there are alternative opportunities for our tech.
e) Interview municipal treasurers and financial officials to determine how cities approve spending on new tech