A First for Oakland - and for the Country
Oakland is doing something no city in the country has done before: using AI-equipped drones to systematically map, detect, and help close out illegal dumpsites across the city. Through a contract with Oakland Public Works, Aerbits is flying its aerial detection system over Oakland's corridors, building a living, verified map of every dumpsite - and turning that data directly into action for city crews.
The idea started at a community conference, where the technology was first demonstrated. Oakland saw it, reached out, and moved fast. The result is a first-of-its-kind program, approved by the City Council, that puts Oakland at the front of the national curve on data-driven street cleanliness.
Why It Saves the City Money
Illegal dumping response today is largely complaint-driven: a resident reports a site, a work order is created, and a crew is dispatched - often without knowing the size, composition, or exact location of what they're picking up. Crews lose time driving to sites that have already been cleaned, searching a block for "somewhere near the corner," or arriving with the wrong equipment for the volume of debris.
The aerial program changes the economics of every work order:
- Verified ground truth: Every flight compares what's actually on the ground against the open work order backlog - closing stale orders and confirming sites that still need service.
- Exact coordinates: RTK/PPK-enabled positioning gives crews centimeter-level locations, eliminating windshield time spent hunting for sites.
- Volume and composition: Aerial imagery measures the size of a dumpsite and classifies the debris, so crews arrive with the right truck, the right tools, and the right number of people the first time.
- Detection of unreported sites: In our Bayview-Hunters Point pilot, 30-50% of detected dumpsites had never been reported through any traditional channel. Finding them early - before they grow - is dramatically cheaper than cleaning them late.
Faster, Cleaner, More Efficient
Drones are simply a faster, more energy-efficient way to see the city. A single flight covers in minutes what would take a vehicle patrol hours to survey - with no added traffic, a fraction of the fuel, and a complete photographic record of every pass. Detection that used to happen in days now happens the same day, and verified cleanup confirmation happens on the next flight, not the next complaint.
For residents, the outcome is straightforward: dumpsites get found sooner, get cleaned faster, and stay cleaned - with a verifiable before-and-after record for every site.
Freeing Crews for the Next Tier of City Maintenance
Every hour a sanitation crew doesn't spend searching for dumpsites is an hour available for everything else a city needs to maintain: street repairs, sidewalks, buildings, trees, and parks. By automating the detection and verification loop, the program lets Oakland's Public Works crews move up the stack - from reactive dumping response to proactive care of the whole public realm.
The same aerial data platform that finds dumpsites today extends naturally to the rest of the maintenance backlog tomorrow: potholes, sidewalk damage, overgrowth, and infrastructure condition - all measurable from the air, all routable into the same work order systems crews already use.
The Future Is Bright
Oakland's illegal dumping problem is serious, but so is the city's response. With this program, Oakland becomes the first city to pair AI-enabled aerial mapping with its sanitation operations at scale - and the model for what every city will be doing in the years ahead. Cleaner streets, lower costs, faster response, and city crews focused on the work that moves neighborhoods forward.
We're proud to be building it here, with Oakland.