# Detecting Road Surface Wetness from Audio: A Deep Learning Approach

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/1511.07035 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.07035/

## Key facts

- Cited by 3 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- First posted on arXiv 22 Nov 2015.

## Built on by (most cited first, 3 of 3)

- [Binaural SoundNet: Predicting Semantics, Depth and Motion with Binaural Sounds](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2109.02763/) (2021)
- [Efficient Non-Compression Auto-Encoder for Driving Noise-based Road Surface Anomaly Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2111.10985/) (2021)
- [Cyberphysical Sequencing for Distributed Asset Management with Broad Traceability](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.02079/) (2021)

## Abstract (arXiv)

We introduce a recurrent neural network architecture for automated road surface wetness detection from audio of tire-surface interaction. The robustness of our approach is evaluated on 785,826 bins of audio that span an extensive range of vehicle speeds, noises from the environment, road surface types, and pavement conditions including international roughness index (IRI) values from 25 in/mi to 1400 in/mi. The training and evaluation of the model are performed on different roads to minimize the impact of environmental and other external factors on the accuracy of the classification. We achieve an unweighted average recall (UAR) of 93.2% across all vehicle speeds including 0 mph. The classifier still works at 0 mph because the discriminating signal is present in the sound of other vehicles driving by.