Nah, machines break down more than humans. I mean, we build the fucking things and we are terrible, so its not exactly a suprise.

If all humans are dead, this thing will have some random segfault because Tony was hung over on a Tuesday from trying to forget about his terrible job when he wrote the code that ran its "roll wheels" function and the company had no code review because that costs money and doesn't pump up stock prices.

So the machine will spend its last erstwhile moments before it loses all power after the death of humanity futility trying to spin its own wheels and hopelessly failing.

I reckon there's a film in that

Reminds me a bit of the short science fiction story There Will Come Soft Rains, about a very diligent smart home still attempting to care for its occupants after the bomb drops.

You'd think a robot that fixed potholes would be reveered and worshipped. I could see people laying out offerings for the robot so that it is appeased when it visits.

Not arguing with its likely effectivness.

But it seems like this is a plan to keep replaced or repaired roads matianed. Rather then fix current potholes.

I assume someone is making the argument that this is cheaper. Then having staff check every road often enough to catch the cracks before potholes develop.

Unfortunately even if it gained public acceptance. Its hard to imagine any local auth. Investing in preventative maintainance to the extent this would actually work.

Huge work to create areas with fixed roads. Then role out these machines. Would mean like any good idea. It will likely cost much more before is starts showing savings.

And politics is just not set up for people to invest in saving their replacements money.