Maybe the local councils could adapt this technology to automate the process of spraying a yellow circle around the pot, as that seems to be the total effort expended on them these days.

Some potholes around here had the yellow circle of shame, but it wore off and they've recently been re-sprayed. Comical.

Surely its simpler for the driver to simply keep an eye out for the dangerous beasties. Sometimes we miss them, in the past 30 years I have had 3 bent wheels but thanks to old school tall sidewall tyres no puncture. The local council paid for 2 wheels/tyres in one instance since I obtained proof from locals they had been complaing for months

Some idiot drivers will assume its another reason they can drive along and let the car control itself.

Indeed, as evidenced by that (IMHO) idiot woman who killed a pedestrian while watching TV on the passenger seat (she was the only occupant) of her supposedly self-driver uber car. I know people who drive really fast, saying that their car's ABS, collision braking system, etc will stop them if they need to.

Imagine if this sort of system tried to avoid a pothole and caused an accident as a result. God helps us.

Potholes are becoming dangerous.

There is one near me, hidden by a large speed bump and just before a pedestrian island.

Even at 15mph it throws the car towards the island. One day, someone is going to hit it at speed and potentially take someone waiting to cross on the island out.

There is anohter one on a nearby A road that is identified by the tyre fragments within a few dozen yards of it.

The council knows of both of these and has done for weeks but hasn't done anything.

Spoke to a lady today whose SLK 250 was damaged to the tune of over £2000 by a pothole incident. Apparently if the council put white lines around a pothole they aren't liable...is that right?

I'd have thought the opposite. If they know it's there they can't deny liability.

I not sure exactly what the deal is legally, but I think that once a pothole is officially reported (i.e. via a council's online/phone reporting system or possibly via fixmystreet) that they get a certain number of days to fix the problem - I'm not sure if they are liable for any damage to vehicles once the report has been made or just after the two working day (possibly) 'fix' period.

I think this is why many now have categories for such problems - my county council (Hertfordshire) has criteria for estimating the severity of the pothole (and other problems [different criteria, obviously]) - you choose from a range of depths and diameters, and can give both text extra info and can upload photos to make their descisions easier to make.

I think, for them anyway, if a pothole is under 2inches/50mm deep and/or less than the width of a football, then its a lower risk and they just monitor its deterioration, after an employee (a contractor) checks the pothole and rings it with spray paint if it needs repair. The low category just get left, the high category get marked and normally, but not always, fixed within 2 working days. Not sure about the 'liability thing' as regards the spary painting, given you can't always see them.

I agree that the spray painted circles cannot always been seen in time (especially at night or if its raining heavily) and you can't always safely take avoiding action, especially if you either don't see it until the last second (not helped if its full of water) or there's nowhere to go (e.g. if you're boxed in by a width restriction or island, etc).