A white Metro Works van is traveling 1,445 miles in Davidson County in the next few weeks looking for “pavement distress.” The “road profiler,” decked out with lights, metal tubes and a sign saying “Danger: Lasers,” will gather images of potholes and cracks. Public Works spokesperson Jenna Smith says it’s collecting data for future road maintenance.

“Now it’s taking photographs every 20 feet but it’s not stopping as it does that, so if somebody sees that truck, they will see, ‘oh, that’s an interesting looking vehicle.’ And it’s probably one of the most high tech vehicles they’ll ever see though you don’t necessarily see that from the outside looking in,” Smith says.

Cameras capture the surface issues while lasers measure road thickness and find sinkholes or other problems below the pavement.

The van snags this information while going the speed limit, so it doesn’t cause delays. Smith says Public Works tries to survey about a quarter of Metro’s roads each year using this technology. This year the van will focus on central and western areas of the county.