Potholes!

Potholes happen. Sometimes even in Libertopia.

A friend (who hasn't made the move to cars that don't rely on wheels) discovered this fact a while back.

Being privately owned, most roads in Libertopia are pretty good. They'd better be since the owner is liable for any damage caused by poor maintenance or other road hazards. Still, things sometimes go wrong and cause a problem before they can be noticed and fixed.

My friend was zipping along the road when her tire's line of travel intersected a nasty pothole. The impact caused some damage to her car, but the safety system on her car kept her from losing control and having even more damage done. (Actually, one system on her car failed since it didn't take her around the pothole to prevent the impact completely. The road owner may be able to recover some of his restitution from the car's manufacturer because of this too, but that is between them and something I won't see.)

My friend's car immediately contacted her insurance company, and sent them the files from its onboard computer, as well as some photos of the pothole (which were automatically labeled with its exact coordinates as well). This information was forwarded to the road's owner, as well as to other travelers in the vicinity so that they could avoid a similar fate.

The owner of the road immediately sent a crew to fix the pothole and paid my friend for the damages and refunded a part of her road subscription fee for her troubles. Arbitration was avoided, as it usually is.

I'm sure she would have preferred not hitting the pothole in the first place, but it was "made good" the best way possible under the circumstances.

.