My Roads

“My Roads” skill for Alexa allows drivers a hands-free way to inform road maintenance crews of potholes.

Potholes are a perennial problem lurking the streets of American cities. It costs motor vehicle drivers a fortune to repair damages made to the tires, suspension, and alignment. Multiple American cities are going through a serious pothole crisis but these 10 cities have it worse. Philadelphia, Baton Rouge, Denver, Bridgeport, Seattle, New York, Cleveland, Honolulu, Milwaukee, and San Francisco are at the tipping point.

Practically there is no permanent solution to the cause. But what we can do is improve the efficiency of solving the problem through civic engagement. And that can be done using an effective method of reporting the problem.

Traditional means of reporting a pothole require us to call up local authorities and reporting it to them. But in no way does this approach alert the citizens about the issue. That is where VOGO Voice’s new Alexa “My Roads” skill comes into play. It is the easiest and the most efficient method to update road maintenance authorities about the poor conditions of the road. Anyone with an Alexa device can do it with a single command. As opposed to visiting websites or calling 311 for reporting the problem, this information is directly relayed to the authorities and the citizens by effectively registering the report in a central database.

The skill updates the user on the location and number of reported potholes through a map and makes them aware of that.

Here is how you can enable the skill on your Alexa device:

Say “Enable My Roads” to get started on Alexa.

Users can report an issue by using the following commands:

• Report a pothole- Used to report a pothole.
• Tell me my reports today (yesterday, this week, this month, this year or a specific date). Tells about the users’ total reportings based on a date range.
• How many potholes are reported? Tells about the total number of potholes reported.
• How many potholes have I reported? Tells the total number of potholes reported by the user.

The ultimate aim of the skill is to empower common citizens to play a role in problem-solving and decision making. This skill makes people aware of the reported potholes so that they can plan their routes efficiently.