Speed Limit Sign Reading Fail

[PianoAl]

Yesterday the new speed limit sign reading failed in an annoying way. I was on a windy, hilly section of highway near Crescent City, California:

The speed limit was 55, but when I passed this sign (from Google Maps):

The car switched to a speed limit of 30 MPH, and wouldn't let autopilot work at more than 35 MPH.

So, some more work needs to be done on speed limit detection (because Caltrans isn't likely to change their signs to something like this:

).

Remind me, if I turn off the traffic control detection, will the car not limit autopilot to 5 MPH over the limit?

 

[smatthew]

It's the first version of traffic sign reading. Tesla is almost certainly requesting that cars send back images of any signs that look off.... Give it a version or two and it will understand the sign.

 

[PianoAl]

It's the first version of traffic sign reading. Tesla is almost certainly requesting that cars send back images of any signs that look off.... Give it a version or two and it will understand the sign.

Yes, I agree. I've found no online place for bug reports like this.

But I'm surprised they didn't handle or detect this in testing.

 

[smatthew]

Yes, I agree. I've found no online place for bug reports like this.

But I'm surprised they didn't handle or detect this in testing.

It's entirely possible they did detect it in testing, but require more data before they can put in place a solution that doesn't erroneously disregard speed limits.

 

[PianoAl]

I've found it sometimes ignores these signs, other times not. It doesn't help that wife and I cry out "DON'T LOOK, NICK, DON'T LOOK!" when we pass these signs.

Here's an example of one that made us slow from 55 MPH to 35 (5 over 30 MPH):

Admittedly, the only disadvantage is that I must depress the accelerator for the next couple of miles until we hit another 55 MPH sign.

I wonder whether the county simply found it cheaper to add a "TRUCK" sign at the top instead of do it like this:

 

[smatthew]

One road in my town has two lanes each way of normal traffic, then medians separate out an additional lane on one side for residential. That parallel side road has a 15mph speed limit. And some of the signs aren't turned enough toward that road.. so occasionally my Tesla will read that and drop me from 35mph to 15mph. Not fun. But, I expect it to be fixed in an update or two.

 

[PianoAl]

The errors from reading signs incorrectly are more numerous and annoying than the ones that happened from before that update.

I hope they either fix this, allow us to disable sign reading, or remove the 5-MPH-over-the-limit restriction. Yesterday I was sitting back, relaxed, monitoring the car, listening to jazz, as it drove through the redwoods, when it read a sign incorrectly. I had to actually put my foot on the accelerator and pay attention to the speed as I drove.

Oh, the horror!

 

[towndrunk]

I guess it boils down to this, if you don't want to be a beta tester, don't opt-in for early updates. Then you'll have better performing software.

 

[Mrcarcrazy]

It doesn’t like 75mph signs I have noticed. It annoys me because I’ve become used to the speeds finally being correct...ish. Good news is it will get better.

 

[PianoAl]

This may have improved with the latest updates. On a drive yesterday, it didn't get fooled by all the TRUCK speed limit signs, but still did for some.

There are some 65 MPH signs that it always fails to read.

 

[Stingray5ive]

This may have improved with the latest updates. On a drive yesterday, it didn't get fooled by all the TRUCK speed limit signs, but still did for some.

There are some 65 MPH signs that it always fails to read.

So it won't currently detect any signs above 60 mph on non NOA roads. There are many 65 mph signs / roads where I live, but none of them are NOA compatible, so it doesn't read them. This has been improved, as it used to misread them as either 45 or 55 mph; not it just ignores them.

 

[Stingray5ive]

Another thing I noticed that irritates me with the latest version is that it no longer reads 15 mph signs. There are several roads around my house that are 15 mph, and the car used to read them with no problem. But the latest update removed that ability completely, and now it doesn't see them at all.

 

[Franzenel]

We have hwy 26 signs and it picks them up as 25 all the time. Talk about a difference from going 60 to 30. it doesn't happen all the time but I would say 1/3 of the time on different signs. enough to make it very annoying.

 

[PianoAl]

A policeman stops a Tesla driver.
"Sir," he says, "why were you driving only 30 MPH in a 60 MPH zone?"
"Oh, that's because my car saw the Hwy 26 sign and thought it was the speed limit."
The cop looks at the man's passengers, whose eyes are wide. One is shaking uncontrollably.
The cop points. "What's wrong with them?"
"We just came from Hwy 189."

 

[israndy]

My problem is that it always reads the speed limit signs just fine. Speed limit is 65 it goes to 65. Unless I am in the second or more lane away from the limit sign. Then when the next sign follows along Truck Speed limit is 55 it goes to 55. It’s so bad that I am not able to look to the dash to know what the current speed limit is. Maybe 55, maybe it’s really 65. Wish they had a photo of the sign instead of that icon.

I haven’t seen this posted on another thread so I thought I’d mention it.

 

[PianoAl]

Sometimes the car successfully reads the "End Truck Limit" sign, and other times it doesn't. I've been experimenting, and it seems that it is mostly likely to be successful if I:

1. Turn off autopilot
2. Drive below the truck speed limit

 

[israndy]

It's really frustrating, I was just on a 5000 mile trip and when I looked down at the display and saw 55 but I was going 75 I never knew for sure if I was in a 65 or 70 zone where the truck limit was what my display was showing, or if the actual speed limit had changed and I should slow down. Yes, I should have seen the speed limit change as an attentive driver but this bug is giving me the confidence to say if I see 55 in the display it's probably wrong so I'll keep going as much as 20 MPH over the limit if its right...

It's really dangerous

 

[JCtx]

Do you have FSD? For the 3 months I had it (free trial), the speed limit info was accurate. After it dropped, not so much, so now it's obviously based on the map data, which you cannot assume it's 100% reliable. In other words, it's better than nothing, but when it's important not to exceed the speed limit, I start paying attention to the signs, to make sure it's what the nav says .