Argh, Potholes!

Automologist MAC looks forward to the day that this pothole solution comes to Malaysia.

Ask any daily commuter around the capital of Malaysia about the quality of the roads, and they will inevitably tell you about the daily pothole dodge that they have to do. The roads of the nation's capital are pock-marked with potholes, to the extent that we almost instinctively swerve around them to preserve our tyres, rims and suspension from an untimely death.

There is a saying that if the world gives you lemons, make lemonade. Fishing in a pothole, though, may be taking this a little far. Truth be told, Kuala Lumpur's roads are not that bad - trust me, I travel a lot and have experienced far worse - but that still does not make me feel any better about the rather expensive mag-rims that needed to be replaced last year, after I hit a particularly large hole on my commute to work.

Okay, pretty ironic really that the guys sent to fix the pothole are actually stuck in the pothole. Of course finding and repairing potholes is no easy task, and not as straightforward as we seem to think for any bureaucracy-crippled municipal authority. Help though, could be at hand, with a brand new re-imagining of the way that we approach the scourge that is the pothole. The relief comes in the form of a robotic truck that can spot-fix potholes in a fraction of the time and cost of the more labour-intensive traditional method. In theory, it could patrol the streets and make repairs as it finds them in quick time.

Apparently a prototype has been built, but as of yet it has not gained enough funding to go into production. So, if you want to see an end to potholes, then I suggest you start lobbying your local municipal authority.