High-tech snowplows and AI help cities clean up from big storms

Syracuse residents once flooded service hotlines with complaints during blizzards, even when plows had recently cleared their streets. Today, those complaints have dropped by 30% thanks to a technological revolution in snow management.

In America’s snowiest major city, which averages a staggering 126 inches of snow annually, officials have transformed their approach to winter operations by integrating video monitoring, GPS tracking, and artificial intelligence into their snow removal systems.

“People will look out their window and say, ‘Hey, you guys are doing a terrible job,'” said Conor Muldoon, Syracuse’s chief innovation officer. “And we can point to a public map and say, ‘Here’s all the breadcrumbs for when that plow was there.'”

This winter has been particularly challenging for Syracuse. Even before the recent Northeast blizzard, the city had already surpassed its typical snowfall average, largely due to a record-breaking 24-inch accumulation in late December.

In 2021, Syracuse partnered with San Francisco-based Samsara to equip its fleet vehicles, including snowplows, with live GPS tracking and dashboard cameras. The technology, integrated with GIS mapping software, allows officials to monitor plow locations and road conditions in real time. While residents don’t have access to live camera feeds, they can view a public map that updates every five minutes to show which roads have been cleared.

Samsara began incorporating AI into its products in 2019, and this winter marked the first time the company provided customers with footage from other cameras within its network. This expanded visibility helps officials better understand conditions throughout the city, even in areas without active plows.

Kiren Sekar, Samsara’s chief product officer, highlighted the system’s efficiency in emergency situations: “Rather than having to sift through a list of vehicles, it can actually figure this out: ‘We’ve got Trevor in vehicle 203, 15 minutes away.'”

While Samsara works with communities of various sizes, New York City—the nation’s largest municipality—developed its own snow removal tracking program called BladeRunner. Unlike Syracuse’s AI-assisted approach, New York City relies on humans in a command center to analyze GPS data from plows and converted garbage trucks. However, the city is exploring AI applications to process the thousands of service requests it receives during major storms.

New York City’s approach also differs in how it structures plow routes, with each vehicle assigned a specific path that ensures equal treatment of main and side streets. “So what it does is allow equity,” explained Joshua Goodman, deputy commissioner at the city’s Department of Sanitation.

Typically, 99% of New York City’s roads are plowed within four hours after moderate snowfall under ideal conditions, though Goodman acknowledged they fell short of this mark during last week’s historic storm.

The financial implications of these technological upgrades are significant. With U.S. municipalities spending upward of $4 billion annually on snow operations, the new systems help prevent overplowing and oversalting, which can cause environmental damage while wasting resources.

Fayetteville, Arkansas, which launched a public-facing snow removal map this winter, reported improvements in plowing time, labor costs, and fuel efficiency, despite experiencing about twice the snowfall compared to last year. “This is the first year some roads have ever been treated or plowed, and that goes right back to being able to see where we need to go and if we’ve been there,” said Ross Jackson Jr., the city’s fleet operations manager.

In Edison, New Jersey, officials reduced salt and brine spending by 35% and insurance payouts by 60%, as video evidence demonstrated that plow drivers were rarely at fault in collision incidents.

Iowa experienced similar benefits, with video footage proving that in a single day with 12 snowplow accidents, all but one were caused by other drivers. “How can you not see this big orange truck with flashing lights ahead of you?” said Craig Bargfrede, the state’s winter operations administrator. “Boom, they just drive right into us.”

Kalamazoo County became Michigan’s first county to employ turn-by-turn navigation for snowplow dispatch during storms. Rusty McClain, assistant general superintendent of its Road Commission, described the technological leap: “The old-school way of doing it, that bird’s eye view of where everyone needs to go to plow, was just in a large book with paper maps. You’d have to pull over, find the page you’re looking for, call somebody on the phone and ask if they have plowed that area.”

As winter storms become increasingly unpredictable due to climate change, these technological advancements represent a critical evolution in how cities manage snow removal, balancing efficiency, accountability, and public trust.