Overall Project Status
This week, the team made solid progress across hardware, software, and documentation by ordering key components (Jetson, gps transponder, power supply, and cellular note carrier) for the dash cam solution, prototyping the overall dash cam design, and establishing an initial backend architecture along with a well-organized codebase. We also defined several core design proposal components, including the design requirements, system specification and block diagram, implementation plan, and the test, verification, and validation plan, while aligning on project management responsibilities for the immediate next steps. At this stage, no major design changes were made, as the current system architecture meets the project requirements; the primary risks identified involve hardware integration and on-device performance, which are being mitigated through early prototyping and staged testing. The project remains on schedule. In the coming week, the team plans to finalize and order the remaining parts, set up the Jetson SDK, finalize the database schema, establish the Firebase backend, and configure a consistent developer workflow to support coordinated development moving forward.
Attribution:
Part A was written by Dylan.
Part B was written by Giovanni.
Part C was written by Kevin.
Part A: Public Health, Safety, and Welfare Considerations
PotSpot directly addresses public safety and welfare by improving the efficiency and reliability of pothole detection and reporting. Poor road conditions pose safety hazards to drivers, cyclists, and pedestrians, and manual reporting methods are often infrequent and delayed. By automatically detecting potholes with high accuracy and uploading precise location metadata, the system enables faster identification and repair of hazardous road conditions, reducing the likelihood of accidents and vehicle damage.
The system is designed for fully hands-free operation after initial setup, ensuring that drivers are not distracted while operating their vehicles. This design choice prioritizes both physical safety and driver well-being while maintaining continuous data collection in the background.
Part B: Social Factors
Social considerations for PotSpot center on trust, privacy, and equitable access to infrastructure improvement tools. While the system collects road imagery, it is designed to focus on pothole detection rather than individuals, and access to pothole status updates and management features is restricted to authorized city administrators through authentication and audit logging. This helps mitigate concerns related to surveillance and misuse of data.
Additionally, PotSpot supports collaboration between drivers, local governments, and communities by aggregating crowdsourced data into a centralized, easy-to-understand interface. This encourages civic engagement and improves communication between residents and municipalities regarding road maintenance priorities.
Part C: Economic Factors
Economically, PotSpot is designed to balance system performance with cost efficiency. Hardware components were selected to meet strict accuracy and latency requirements while maintaining reasonable weight and power constraints, keeping the overall device affordable and scalable. The use of cloud-based infrastructure enables the system to support up to 1,000 active users without requiring costly on-premise server deployments.
By enabling faster pothole detection and repair, the system has the potential to reduce long-term infrastructure maintenance costs and vehicle repair expenses for drivers. Clear, data-driven prioritization of road repairs allows municipalities to allocate resources more efficiently, resulting in economic benefits for both local governments and the broader community.