Geelong Becomes First Victorian Council to Use AI to Find and Measure Potholes

The City of Greater Geelong says it is the first Victorian council to put artificial intelligence to work finding and measuring potholes, ABC News reported on November 5. Smart cameras mounted on two street sweepers photograph defects as the trucks drive, then send images plus width and depth readings to road crews so they can calculate the asphalt and labour needed before a hole grows.

Mayor Stretch Kontelj said the $7,000 program, trialled since August 2025, has already detected 1,600 potholes. Early intervention, he argued, keeps repairs small and cheap—“a stitch in time saves nine.” City CEO Ali Wastie noted Geelong fixed more than 5,300 potholes last financial year and said better location data helps crews plan routes instead of reacting only after residents complain.

Senior analyst Alexander Hardiman called the shift from theory to roadside cameras remarkable compared with what seemed impossible a decade ago. The council hopes to expand the kit from sweepers to garbage trucks and other fleet vehicles, and eventually to spot faded line markings, missing drain lids, faulty signs and roadside hazards—turning routine municipal routes into a rolling inspection network.

What it means in practice

Geelong’s bet is a concrete counterpart to national surveys such as the ABS finding that four in five businesses still say AI has not changed job vacancies, showing how local services can adopt narrow tools without rewriting their workforce overnight. It also sits beside security-heavy federal work, from ASD’s warning that AI drove a sharp jump in cyber alerts to open-weight model guidance, reminding councils that cameras and cloud backends need the same care as any other connected system.

What to watch is whether the wider fleet rollout cuts repair costs as promised, how quickly other Victorian councils copy the setup, and whether Geelong publishes enough open metrics for residents to judge the return on a low-cost pilot.