Citroën have called on the Government to make using AI compulsory to fix Britain’s pothole crisis and save billions of pounds on repairs.
The car brand’s new report – The Better Roads Manifesto – says it should be compulsory for road inspections to be completed with artificial intelligence software that is already available.
The plan also calls for the introduction of a five-year plan for road funding, strengthening legislation to create a national standard for road repairs, holding utility companies to account for poor repairs, developing a road cleaning strategy to clear dangerous debris, and creating a volunteer workforce.
The UK is estimated to have over a million potholes, with the Government setting aside £1.6 billion to fix roads until the of the year. But that’s less than the £1.8bn driver’s spent repairing pothole damage to their cars in 2025.
Managing Director of Citroën UK, Greg Taylor, told GB News: “It's not really acceptable in 2026 that we have a situation where local highways authorities are following different processes and systems in terms of the rectification of these roads.
“They are a blight on society in general and it’s a problem that many people come across every single day.
“We've identified up to £5.5billion worth of savings savings in efficiencies that could be made through implementing some of the practices that are contained within the report.”
Freedom of Information requests for the report reveal only half of councils use ‘advanced geo-location’ technology to map potholes, with 47 per cent relying on other methods.
The report also found that some councils consider a pothole needing repair to be 40mm deep, but others think it must be 80mm. Some define a pothole as 75mm wide, but a few local authorities say it needs to be 300mm wide before needing repair.
Greg Taylor says using artificial intelligence will help improve repair efficiency.
He said: “They can obviously locate the worst ones far faster, and they can then deploy road teams to effectively fix them much more quickly.
“In essence, it will be a much more efficient use of the funding that's available for local local authorities to fix potholes.
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“That's really what we want government and and local authorities to do. We want to work with them to be able to help take this on and and effectively rectify Britain's roads.”
As well as a multi-year investment plan, the Government says councils are now facing new rules on how they spend funding to fix potholes and maintain highways.
According to Aviva, pothole-related insurance claims are now costing an average of £3,863 per incident. Citroën’s report reveals nearly 30% of drivers have lost control of their vehicle avoiding damaged roads.
Taylor added: “A lot of cars actually end up being written off when they hit a pothole, so it's a complete waste of money, time, resource and creates a lot of stress.
“I think that's why it really resonates with the the UK public, because they've had enough of this situation.”
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