School zones

[aleagle]

I would like to see Tesla FSD recognize reduced speed in school zones. Even though it would require the software to be sensitive to certain time zones which vary by city and location, it would at least notify the driver to pay attention to his speed and determine if it needed to be reduced.

 

[airborne spoon]

Also the AP camera is too sensitive to signs already. There is a 35 ton sign on the way home and the AP changes from 65 to 40 every time i pass it and its annoying as ****. same with the 55 mph sign for trucks on a few hills the truck speed is 45 and cars are 65 but the stupid AP camera thinks that my speed is 45 and gets all stupid so i usually just drive through those areas on cruise control instead of AP but sometimes I'm just cruising on AP and the sign comes by and bam ****ing brakes!

 

[Supcom]

I would like to see Tesla FSD recognize reduced speed in school zones. Even though it would require the software to be sensitive to certain time zones which vary by city and location, it would at least notify the driver to pay attention to his speed and determine if it needed to be reduced.

Yes, of course. It also needs to not try to pass a school bus stopped with it's lights flashing.

The school bus should be relatively straightforward. School zones gets complicated. AFAIK, there is no national standard for a school zone speed limit sign. And some post the active times, while others use flashing lights.

 

[Yelobird]

Just an opinion but like cruise control you shouldn’t be using auto drive in Any school zone. Children are unpredictable and those speed and caution signs are there for a reason.

 

[EVRider-FL]

Just an opinion but like cruise control you shouldn’t be using auto drive in Any school zone. Children are unpredictable and those speed and caution signs are there for a reason.

True, but FSD needs to solve this problem, so we should be seeing some support for it already (at least in FSD Beta). Some people have reported seeing special speed limit icons that indicate the car recognizes school zone speed limit in some cases, but I don’t think the car responds by slowing down.

Another variation that I’ve seen for school zone speed limit signs: 20mph when children are present. That will be interesting to handle.

 

[JulienW]

Full Self Driving will have to respond for Level 3, but Beta is still Level 2 and standard Auto Steer (AutoPilot) will always be Level 2 and NEVER need to identify School Zones.

 

[Goose66]

I was just assuming that there were no school zones in California at all, and that the FSD development folks were just not aware of the oversight.

I mean, seriously, even if the intention is to have the driver take control in the school zone to avoid the liability, then pop up the "Take Control Immediately" alarm. Don't just treat it like a disappearing and reappearing traffic light and behave erratically (or simply ignore it altogether). Here in Atlanta, school zone signs can be either white rectangle regulatory signs or yellow diamond warning signs (or a combination of these), but they always have at least one flashing yellow light and 99.9999% of them have both the words "School" and "Zone" in the sign, so it can't be that hard to train the neural networks to recognize them! At least pull the new speed out of the sign and adjust accordingly.

 

[Supcom]

I was just assuming that there were no school zones in California at all, and that the FSD development folks were just not aware of the oversight.

I mean, seriously, even if the intention is to have the driver take control in the school zone to avoid the liability, then pop up the "Take Control Immediately" alarm. Don't just treat it like a disappearing and reappearing traffic light and behave erratically (or simply ignore it altogether). Here in Atlanta, school zone signs can be either white rectangle regulatory signs or yellow diamond warning signs (or a combination of these), but they always have at least one flashing yellow light and 99.9999% of them have both the words "School" and "Zone" in the sign, so it can't be that hard to train the neural networks to recognize them! At least pull the new speed out of the sign and adjust accordingly.

Here's one example of a CA school zone sign in Ventura. This is significantly different than a school zone in Texas. Most likely, there are many variations on the theme across the US. Although human drivers easily adapt to them, FSD beta will need a lot of training.

Here's a random Texas school zone sign. I live in Texas and this sign is even different from the ones near me. In this case, the car needs to know what days are school days. In Texas, every school district sets their own schedule!

 

[sleepydoc]

My MY used to slow down to the school zone speed limit regardless of the time/day. Now it disregards them.

The problem with school zones, at least around here, is they always say “when children are present.” This means that you can’t use a day of the week, or time of day to know when the limit applies. I can’t see any AI system effectively managing this in the near future.

 

[Phlier]

Here's one example of a CA school zone sign in Ventura. This is significantly different than a school zone in Texas. Most likely, there are many variations on the theme across the US. Although human drivers easily adapt to them, FSD beta will need a lot of training.

View attachment 800469

Here's a random Texas school zone sign. I live in Texas and this sign is even different from the ones near me. In this case, the car needs to know what days are school days. In Texas, every school district sets their own schedule!

View attachment 800471

That's an especially tricky one, as FSD will have to:
1. Determine that it's a school day
2. Adjust the vehicle's speed accordingly, and finally...
3. Politely tell the person you're talking to that "we can't talk now" and hang up the phone.

 

[Goose66]

The flashing lights aren’t as common across the country as I had assume. That usually has the “kids present” or “time of day” logic covered so the car doesn’t have to determine such things.

 

[nvx1977]

Here's a school zone sign in New Hampshire on my commute path. Has the fluorescent "SCHOOL" sign above the speed limit, and utilizes a flashing amber light.

Google Maps

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www.google.com

Here's one in Massachusetts where there's a "pre-sign" and the actual sign. The actual sign uses 2 flashing lights, and the speed display is also backlit. This seems to be the common design for the signs in MA:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

another MA example:

Google Maps

Find local businesses, view maps and get driving directions in Google Maps.

www.google.com

Until there's a concerted effort to standardize signs, it will be hard for FSD to do the right thing in all situations, but for now, a viable solution would be to detect the word "school" and slow down. This does mean it slows down unnecessarily in some situations, but seems like a good way to err on the side of caution.

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

I grew up in an area that used the flashy lights. Now I live in an area where some use lights others have the stupid “when children are present”. I feel that’s too vague of a statement.

Those signs make my head hurt as I go down a rabbit hole of “what does this mean to the avg cop?”

 

[2101Guy]

Cant the cameras determine when children are present via AI/ML and Dojo?

 

[EVNow]

The school bus should be relatively straightforward. School zones gets complicated. AFAIK, there is no national standard for a school zone speed limit sign. And some post the active times, while others use flashing lights.

I would like to see Tesla FSD recognize reduced speed in school zones. Even though it would require the software to be sensitive to certain time zones which vary by city and location, it would at least notify the driver to pay attention to his speed and determine if it needed to be reduced.

There is a ton of discussion around speed zone recognition (around the time speed limits were first recognized). Very complicated.