Somerville Tech Firm Uses AI To Help Cities Track Road Damage, Cut Repair Costs

When it comes to road repairs and infrastructure maintenance, municipalities previously had to hope for the best with requests that strained their budgets. Now, a Massachusetts company is stepping in to put artificial intelligence (AI) to help with these decisions.

Cyvl, a Somerville-based company, is using AI to enable cities to manage road maintenance by mapping and measuring road conditions from data collected by cameras and sensors mounted on vehicles. The system enables high-resolution road inspections, letting users zoom in to classify defects.

"We can zoom all the way into the roadway and see, 'OK, actually, whats going on here?'" said Daniel Pelaez, Cyvl's co-founder and CEO, in a demonstration of the technology to NBC10 Boston. "So, this pink is showing alligator cracking, and then the AI is automatically finding four different types of defects."

Data collection speeds up significantly as vehicles drive around, reducing manual inspection time and enabling more precise estimates of asphalt needs and repair timing.

Beyond assessing road defects, the platform catalogs infrastructure elements such as parking signs, benches, and traffic cameras, along with their condition.

Cyvl reports having more than 500 customers in the United States and Australia, including the City of Boston. The technology allows users to obtain a data-driven view of road conditions and guide infrastructure investments.

"We're showing that the city, with all of our private sector partners, can really push the limits of what is possible, and do AI in a way that serves, really, people," said Boston Chief Information Officer Santiago Garces in a statement shared with NBC10.

Pelaez said that Cyvl is expanding its collaboration with Boston via the AskBoston.ai website. This site, which launched on Monday, April 6, allows users to submit specific questions about certain roads or neighborhoods and receive answers supported by inspection data from Cyvl and the city. Palaez encourages the public to explore the site and share feedback to improve its usefulness.