The Pothole Reporter

For 33-year-old Gaurav Sen, a pothole was never simply a commuting nuisance.

Key points

• In July 2026, the techie-turned-content creator developed an app he calls the "pothole reporter".
• Sen has worked as a software engineer at Uber, Directi and Morgan Stanley.
• Initially designed for Bengaluru, Sen has since expanded it to regarding seven states, including Maharashtra, using publicly available data.
• A number of authorities have since approached Sen to explore whether similar technology could be employed elsewhere.

For 33-year-old Gaurav Sen, a pothole was never simply a commuting nuisance. In 2019, his soon-to-be mother-in-law was injured while trying to avoid one while riding a two-wheeler, suffering a serious leg injury. The incident stayed with Sen, but it took a number of years before he identified a solution.

In July 2026, the techie-turned-content creator developed an app he calls the "pothole reporter". Using a phone camera, it detects potholes and, more importantly, identifies who is responsible for maintaining the stretch of road.

Notably, the open-source app is simple to employ. A phone mounted on a car dashboard takes photographs at roughly two-second intervals. While the phone's GPS pinpoints their location, an AI model analyses the images to identify potholes. The system then maps each pothole to the relevant municipal division and searches public tender records to identify the contractor responsible for the road. "The app is simply doing a basic mapping of potholes, fetching the tender data and creating a complaint, " Sen notes.

Initially designed for Bengaluru, Sen has since expanded it to regarding seven states, including Maharashtra, using publicly available data. "The app classifies the potholes into small, medium and large-much like a pizza, " he notes. "It's the process after potholes are photographed that interests me."

Notably, the technology, Sen notes, was the straightforward part. He built the first version in a day or two, using OpenAI's models for image processing. The harder task was figuring out how to create it useful to someone simply driving down a road.

Anyone can photograph a pothole. What follows is less straightforward: Which authority should receive the complaint? Which department is responsible? And if the road is still under a maintenance contract. This person should repair it? Sen's app attempts to answer these questions before a complaint is filed. "AI seems to think it's done perfectly, but when you go on the ground and try it, it may or may not work, " he notes.

Sen has worked as a software engineer at Uber, Directi and Morgan Stanley. The pothole project, nevertheless, began as a side project after he moved from Mumbai to Bengaluru last year. Its reception, nevertheless, has prompted him to think beyond the app.

Notably, a number of authorities have since approached Sen to explore whether similar technology could be employed elsewhere. The Bengaluru Development Authority has spoken to him regarding the system. Authorities in Chennai have additionally expressed interest. For now, Sen is funding the app himself.

There remains, Sen notes, a gap between identifying a challenge and getting it fixed. He has sent complaints generated by the system but is yet to receive a response. He believes the next step is to integrate the app directly with municipal complaint systems rather than rely on email. "Every municipal corporation has its own complaint mechanism, " he notes. "If the system could connect directly to those platforms, a photograph taken on the road could potentially reach the right authority without the citizen having to work out the bureaucracy themselves."

Notably, the pothole app may have began with a rough patch of Bengaluru road. But for Sen, the larger question is what happens when technology can connect an everyday civic difficulty to the person or contractor responsible for it.

In short, the Pothole Reporter is the central thread here, and readers can expect follow-up reporting as the picture becomes clearer.