52 % of Spain’s road network is severely deteriorated, ASIMOB tech reveals

A new audit from the Asociación Española de la Carretera (AEC) published in July 2025, reveals that over 52 % of Spain’s interurban road network, more than 54,000 km out of roughly 101,700 km, shows serious or very serious deterioration. 

Examples of these damages range from deep pavement cracks and potholes to failing signage, safety barriers, and road markings.

The AEC study estimates that €13.491 billion is required to restore the network, including 33,966 km in need of urgent reconstruction within one year and another 20,407 km requiring repairs in the next four years. According to AEC, lack of sufficient maintenance over recent years has accelerated deterioration at a rate of approximately 8 % per year, while annual investment in road upkeep (~€2 billion) remains far below the recommended €5.2 billion. 

ASIMOB’s Autonomous Road Inspector

For the first time since 1985, the AEC audit used ASIMOB’s Autonomous Road Inspector, a system created by the EIT Urban Mobility portfolio startup ASIMOB. A camera-equipped vehicle collected high-resolution imagery at 90 km/h. These images were processed with artificial intelligence and computer vision to detect and classify pavement defects, degraded signs and markings, damage in protections, and other safety risks.

This automated digital inspection replaced previous manual visual evaluations and offered significantly higher resolution and reach: over 4,000 km were audited across the peninsula, compared to a few hundred in prior methods.

ASIMOB is expanding with EIT Urban Mobility support

EIT Urban Mobility has supported ASIMOB since 2021. First via an accelerator and scaleup programme, followed by investment. Being the largest innovation community in mobility, EIT Urban Mobility has an extensive pan-European network to make warm introductions between its startups and other players in the market. As a result, ASIMOB got introduced to two Dutch partners, the Dutch telecom operator KPN and Rijkswaterstaat (part of the Dutch Ministry of Infrastructure and Water Management operating all the highways in the Netherlands) with whom they did a proof of concept.  

EIT Urban Mobility was the driving force behind getting connected to one of the main telecom operators in the Netherlands. This opportunity allowed us to access a new innovative market on which we were focusing

Ibon Arechalde, CEO & Co-founder at ASIMOB

Currently, the service for pavement, traffic signs, road markings and barriers is already included as a requirement in tenders for maintenance. ASIMOB is expanding its services focused in road safety with the Autonomous Inspector for Lightning as part of the EIT Urban Mobility project SAFELIGHT. The new service is being tested in Spain and Romania together with Flash Lightning Services and Las Rozas Innova.

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