As America’s aging roads fall further behind on much-needed repairs, cities and states are turning to artificial intelligence to spot the worst hazards and decide which fixes should come first.
Hawaii officials, for example, are giving away 1,000 dashboard cameras as they try to reverse a recent spike in traffic fatalities. The cameras will use AI to automate inspections of guardrails, road signs and pavement markings, instantly discerning between minor problems and emergencies that warrant sending a maintenance crew.
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Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, adjusts a small detection camera – which uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes – mounted inside one of the city's parking enforcement vehicles, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
This City of San Jose parking enforcement vehicle is one of two equipped with a small detection camera that can detect road hazards and potholes, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, showcases how a small detection camera uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A small detection camera – which uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes – is seen mounted inside a parking enforcement vehicle, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, showcases how a small detection camera uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
“This is not something where it’s looked at once a month and then they sit down and figure out where they’re going to put their vans,” said Richard Browning, chief commercial officer at Nextbase, which developed the dashcams and imagery platform for Hawaii.
After San Jose, California, started mounting cameras on street sweepers, city staff confirmed the system correctly identified potholes 97% of the time. Now they're expanding the effort to parking enforcement vehicles.
Texas, where there are more roadway lane miles than the next two states combined, is less than a year into a massive AI plan that uses cameras as well as cellphone data from drivers who enroll to improve safety.
Other states use the technology to inspect street signs or build annual reports about road congestion.
Hawaii drivers over the next few weeks will be able to sign up for a free dashcam valued at $499 under the “Eyes on the Road” campaign, which was piloted on service vehicles in 2021 before being paused due to wildfires.
Roger Chen, a University of Hawaii associate professor of engineering who is helping facilitate the program, said the state faces unique challenges in maintaining its outdated roadway infrastructure.
“Equipment has to be shipped to the island,” Chen said. “There’s a space constraint and a topography constraint they have to deal with, so it’s not an easy problem.”
Although the program also monitors such things as street debris and faded paint on lane lines, the companies behind the technology particularly tout its ability to detect damaged guardrails.
“They’re analyzing all guardrails in their state, every single day,” said Mark Pittman, CEO of Blyncsy, which combines the dashboard feeds with mapping software to analyze road conditions.
Hawaii transportation officials are well aware of the risks that can stem from broken guardrails. Last year, the state reached a $3.9 million settlement with the family of a driver who was killed in 2020 after slamming into a guardrail that had been damaged in a crash 18 months earlier but never repaired.
In October, Hawaii recorded its 106th traffic fatality of 2025 — more than all of 2024. It's unclear how many of the deaths were related to road problems, but Chen said the grim trend underscores the timeliness of the dashboard program.
San Jose has reported strong early success in identifying potholes and road debris just by mounting cameras on a few street sweepers and parking enforcement vehicles.
But Mayor Matt Mahan, a Democrat who founded two tech startups before entering politics, said the effort will be much more effective if cities contribute their images to a shared AI database. The system can recognize a road problem that it has seen before — even if it happened somewhere else, Mahan said.
“It sees, ‘Oh, that actually is a cardboard box wedged between those two parked vehicles, and that counts as debris on a roadway,’” Mahan said. “We could wait five years for that to happen here, or maybe we have it at our fingertips.”
San Jose officials helped establish the GovAI Coalition, which went public in March 2024 for governments to share best practices and eventually data. Other local governments in California, Minnesota, Oregon, Texas and Washington, as well as the state of Colorado, are members.
Not all AI approaches to improving road safety require cameras.
Massachusetts-based Cambridge Mobile Telematics launched a system called StreetVision that uses cellphone data to identify risky driving behavior. The company works with state transportation departments to pinpoint where specific road conditions are fueling those dangers.
Ryan McMahon, the company's senior vice president of strategy & corporate development, was attending a conference in Washington, D.C., when he noticed the StreetVision software was showing a massive number of vehicles braking aggressively on a nearby road.
The reason: a bush was obstructing a stop sign, which drivers weren't seeing until the last second.
“What we’re looking at is the accumulation of events,” McMahon said. “That brought me to an infrastructure problem, and the solution to the infrastructure problem was a pair of garden shears."
Texas officials have been using StreetVision and various other AI tools to address safety concerns. The approach was particularly helpful recently when they scanned 250,000 lane miles (402,000 kilometers) to identify old street signs long overdue for replacement.
“If something was installed 10 or 15 years ago and the work order was on paper, God help you trying to find that in the digits somewhere,” said Jim Markham, who deals with crash data for the Texas Department of Transportation. “Having AI that can go through and screen for that is a force multiplier that basically allows us to look wider and further much faster than we could just driving stuff around.”
Experts in AI-based road safety techniques say what's being done now is largely just a stepping stone for a time when a large proportion of vehicles on the road will be driverless.
Pittman, the Blyncsy CEO who has worked on the Hawaii dashcam program, predicts that within eight years almost every new vehicle — with or without a driver — will come with a camera.
“How do we see our roadways today from the perspective of grandma in a Buick but also Elon and his Tesla?” Pittman said. “This is really important nuance for departments of transportation and city agencies. They're now building infrastructure for humans and automated drivers alike, and they need to start bridging that divide.”
Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, adjusts a small detection camera – which uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes – mounted inside one of the city's parking enforcement vehicles, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
This City of San Jose parking enforcement vehicle is one of two equipped with a small detection camera that can detect road hazards and potholes, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, showcases how a small detection camera uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
A small detection camera – which uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes – is seen mounted inside a parking enforcement vehicle, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
Chelsea Palacio, public information manager for the City of San Jose, showcases how a small detection camera uses AI to detect road hazards and potholes, in San Jose, Calif., Wednesday, Nov. 12, 2025. (AP Photo/Godofredo A. Vásquez)
DOUANKARA, Mauritania (AP) — A new Russian military unit that replaced the Wagner mercenary group is carrying out abuses including rapes and beheadings as it teams up with Mali 's military to hunt down extremists, dozens of civilians who fled the fighting have told The Associated Press.
The Africa Corps is using the same tactics as Wagner, the refugees said, in accounts not reported by international media until now. Two refugees showed videos of villages burned by the “white men.” Two others said they found bodies of loved ones with liver and kidneys missing, an abuse the AP previously reported around Wagner.
“It’s a scorched-earth policy,” said a Malian village chief who fled. “The soldiers speak to no one. Anyone they see, they shoot. No questions, no warning. People don’t even know why they are being killed.”
West Africa's vast Sahel region has become the deadliest place in the world for extremism, with thousands of people killed. The military governments of Mali, Burkina Faso and Niger have turned from Western allies to Russia for help combating the fighters affiliated with al-Qaida or the Islamic State group.
When the Africa Corps replaced Wagner six months ago, weary civilians hoped for less brutality. The United Nations says they have been abused by all sides in the conflict.
But refugees described a new reign of terror by Africa Corps in the vast and largely lawless territory, and legal analysts said Moscow is directly responsible.
The AP gained rare access to the Mauritanian border, where thousands of Malians have fled in recent months as fighting intensified. It spoke with 34 refugees who described indiscriminate killings, abductions and sexual abuse. Most spoke on condition of anonymity for fear of retaliation.
“They are the same men, paid by the government, and continue the massacres. There is no difference between Wagner and Africa Corps," said the village chief.
Malian authorities have never publicly acknowledged the presence of Wagner or Africa Corps. But Russian state media in recent weeks have published reports from Mali, praising Africa Corps for defending the country from “terrorists," and Russia's Foreign Ministry has confirmed that the unit is active “at the request of the Malian authorities,” providing ground escorts, search-and-rescue operations and other work.
Russia's Defense Ministry did not respond to AP questions.
It was early morning and Mougaloa was preparing sweet black tea when she heard gunshots. Seconds later, two cars pulled up in front of her tent, filled with masked white men shouting in a foreign language.
A herder from northern Mali, she has witnessed her share of horrors over the last decade of violence — but she said no one had been as ferocious as these men.
Armed men had come before, Mougaloa said. Usually the family would flee when they heard them coming. But three months ago, they were caught.
She said the men arrived with Malian soldiers and grabbed her 20-year-old son, Koubadi. The Malians asked him whether he had seen militants. When he said no, they beat him until he fainted.
Then the men slit his throat as Mougaloa watched, powerless.
She said the family fled but the armed men found them again in late October.
This time, they didn't ask questions. They wore masks and military uniforms. They took everything the family had, from animals to jewelry.
And they kept repeating one word, “pes” — a derogatory term for dog in Russian.
They dragged Mougaloa's 16-year-old daughter, Akhadya, as she tried to resist. Then they spotted Mougaloa's older daughter, Fatma, and lost interest in Akhadya.
They took Fatma into her tent. Without thinking, Mougaloa took Akhadya's hand and started running, leaving Fatma behind. They have not heard from her since.
“We were so scared,” Mougaloa said, trembling. “We are hoping she will get here at some point.”
Experts say it's impossible to know how many people are being killed and assaulted in Mali, especially in remote areas, while journalists and aid workers have increasingly limited access to the country.
“There is a lot of people raped, attacked, killed. Families are separated, there is no doubt about that," said Sukru Cansizoglu, the representative in Mauritania for the U.N. refugee agency. But “it is sometimes difficult to really pinpoint who are the perpetrators."
Civilians, under pressure from both the militants and the Africa Corps and Malian fighters, are “between a rock and a hard place,” said Heni Nsaibia from the Armed Conflict Location & Event Data Project, or ACLED.
If people don't follow JNIM evacuation orders, they face reprisals, Nsaibia said. But if they flee, Mali's army and Africa Corps consider them JNIM accomplices.
Mougaloa's family experienced it firsthand.
“If you don’t tell the army you saw jihadists, the army will kill you,” she said. “But if you do tell them, the jihadists will find you and kill you.”
Reported abuses against civilians intensified when Wagner joined the underfunded Malian army in 2021. According to private security analysts, Mali paid Russia about $10 million a month for Wagner’s assistance. While the group was never officially under the Kremlin's command, it had close ties to Russia’s intelligence and military.
Moscow began developing the Africa Corps as a rival to Wagner after its leader Yevgeny Prigozhin was killed in a plane crash in 2023 following his brief armed rebellion in Russia that challenged the rule of President Vladimir Putin.
It is unclear whether the terms of Mali's agreement remain the same for Africa Corps. Much is unknown about its operations, including the number of fighters, which analysts estimate at around 2,000.
Not all Africa Corps fighters are Russian. Several refugees told the AP they saw Black men speaking foreign languages. The European Council on Foreign Relations in a recent report said the unit recruits from Russia, Belarus and African states.
Africa Corps and Malian forces have increased their joint offensives in northern Mali, home to substantial gold reserves, according to the Critical Threats project by the American Enterprise Institute.
While civilian deaths blamed on the Russians have dropped this year — 447 so far compared with 911 last year — the numbers might not reflect the full scale, Nsaibia said: “People are more scared to report, in order to avoid putting their own safety on the line."
Fewer outsiders are watching. A U.N. peacekeeping mission withdrew from Mali in 2023 under government pressure. Mali's withdrawal this year from the International Criminal Court has further complicated efforts to track abuses. The ICC has been investigating serious crimes committed in Mali since 2012, when fighting with armed groups began.
Eduardo Gonzalez Cueva, a U.N. independent expert on human rights in Mali, told the AP he asked the country’s military authorities twice this year for permission to visit, and sent them a questionnaire. They did not respond.
Mali’s government considers investigations into alleged abuses “inconvenient and harmful to the morale of the troops,” Cueva said in his latest report to the U.N. Human Rights Council in March, noting that “the escalation of serious human rights violations and abuses by all actors is accelerating due to impunity.”
When Wagner announced its departure from Mali, some refugees decided to return home. Many found that nothing had changed.
“It was the same thing,” said one, Bocar, who spoke with resignation as he cradled his youngest son. He said he had seen bodies with organs missing.
He said he had counted all the men killed or abducted by Wagner and Mali’s army in his hometown of Lere before he first fled in 2023. He said the list reached 214 people.
“Only the name was changed,” he said of Africa Corps. “The clothes, the vehicles, the people stayed the same. The methods stayed the same, and even became worse. So we left home again.”
Other refugees described being so terrified of the Russians that at any noise resembling an engine, they would run or climb the nearest tree.
One woman said she was so frantic to flee Wagner fighters that she once left her 3-month-old baby at home. When she returned hours later, her daughter was laying in front of the house, her tiny hands clenched into fists.
“I was so scared, I forgot I had a baby,” the woman said, clutching her daughter.
Legal experts said the shift from Wagner to Africa Corps makes the Russian government directly accountable for fighters’ actions.
“Despite the rebranding, there is striking continuity in personnel, commanders, tactics and even insignia between Wagner and Africa Corps,” said Lindsay Freeman, senior director of international accountability at the UC Berkeley School of Law's Human Rights Center, which has monitored the conflict in Mali.
Because Africa Corps is directly embedded in Russia’s Ministry of Defense, it can be treated as an organ of the Russian state under international law, Freeman said. “That means any war crimes committed by Africa Corps in Mali are, in principle, attributable to the Russian government under the rules on state responsibility.”
When white men came to the village of Kurmare less than a month ago, Fatma said everyone fled but her.
At the sound of gunshots, her 18-year-old daughter had a seizure and fell, unconscious. Fatma stayed with her as the men looted the village and shot at people running away.
The men went from house to house, taking women's jewelry and killing men. When they entered Fatma's house, they thought her daughter was dead and left her alone.
Fatma did not want to talk about what the white men did to her.
It “stays between God and me,” she muttered, trembling.
When they left her village hours later, she found the body of her son, who was shot at his shop. Then she found her injured brother. As she set off for Mauritania, her daughter, who continued having seizures, died as well.
“Before the conflict erupted, I had strength, I had courage,” Fatma said faintly. Now, "life has lost its meaning.”
Her family is with the Fulani ethnic group, which Mali's government accuses of being affiliated with the militants. Some Fulani, long neglected by the central government, have joined the fighters. Civilians are often targeted by both sides.
But Fatma said no one killed or injured in her village belonged to any armed group. “I don't know what we did to deserve it," she said.
Now, in Mauritania, the memories haunt her. She has trouble sleeping and breathing, and clutched repeatedly at her chest. She spends her time looking at the only photograph she has of her daughter.
“I am just someone who is alive and appears as a person that I was — but is not, in fact, living," she said.
A woman is helped outside a treatment room of a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
Men from northern Mali who fled attacks by the Malian Army and Africa Corps sit in a tent at a makeshift camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A Fulani woman who fled violence in Mali sits at a camp in Fassala, Mauritania, Sunday, Nov. 9, 2025, where she has found refuge. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A four-year-old girl who was injured during a drone strike in Mali, is treated in a health clinic in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
Afay, a Malian refugee, shows images of her burned village after Africa Corps razed the marketplace to the ground, she said while sitting at a camp in Douankara, Mauritania, Friday, Nov. 7, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A village chief who fled northern Mali’s scorched earth policy of Africa Corps, sits in Douankara, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A Fulani woman weaves in the traditional style of her community at her new home in Makhal Oulad Zeid, Mauritania, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
Moyme, who fled Mali in fear of the Malian Army and its Russian allies, poses for a portrait Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025, in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania where she has found refuge. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
Bakary Bah, who fled Mali in 2023 when more than a dozen people including his brother where killed in his village, sits for a portrait in a camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 4, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
Fulani community members who have recently fled violence in Mali, take refuge in Makhal Oulad Zeid, Mauritania, Wednesday, Nov. 5, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A herder moves livestock through the refugee camp in Mbera, Mauritania, Tuesday, Nov. 3, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
A mother holds the clenched hand of her daughter, who has not unclenched it in the eight months since fleeing mercenaries in Mali and finding refuge in Douankara, Mauritania, Saturday, Nov. 8, 2025. (AP Photo/Caitlin Kelly)
