Speed limit sign recognition

[Hoodoo]

Sorry if this has been discussed ad nausea previously - I cannot find any threads:

I know speed limit recognition works on the El Cheapo airport Renault rental and based on this forum for Tesla AP1. And, even better, as of late, stop sign and traffic light recognition has been added, kind of.

But what about plain old speed limit sign recognition? I test-drove two MX in 2019 and neither was capable of this. Apparently they used incorrect and/or outdated map-based info - NOT GOOD!!!

Has this been rectified? This seems like such a basic issue. It might even help cut down on phantom breaking.

 

[sllvgl]

I haven’t noticed any vision based speed limit recognition, only map based. Phantom braking when at 65mph and over speeding in well signaled HW101 construction zones.

2020.20.5 2019 Raven Perf

 

[Hoodoo]

Thanks. This is disappointing and hard to accept from an AI that supposedly recognizes traffic lights and STOP signs. Does anyone know if this is a programming issue or an IP issue? Any idea when this might (re)added?

 

[Phil Seastrand]

I read somewhere that this was due to a patent issue with Mobile-Eye, but someone else said that's not the case. So, I'm not sure we really know why.

 

[MP3Mike]

Elon has recently said that this would be coming "soon".

 

[Hoodoo]

Soon would be great and long overdue IMHO. Seems obvious to me that without that feature you cannot even begin to use the fancy term ‘full self driving feature complete’.

 

[SilverString]

Soon would be great and long overdue IMHO. Seems obvious to me that without that feature you cannot even begin to use the fancy term ‘full self driving feature complete’.

The issue was a ridiculously strict patent enforcement ruling in favor of mobile-eye when they split with Tesla. My understanding is that under the ruling any use of a digital camera to read the speed limit sign was a patent infringement. Only very recently has this been resolved.

 

[Hoodoo]

Good to hear! One would hope that Tesla has the software already developer and tested, ready to be deployed as soon as any IP issues have been resolved.

Doesn’t such a strict patent ruling seem to violate the stipulation that an invention has to be non-obvious?

 

[sllvgl]

Doesn’t such a strict patent ruling seem to violate the stipulation that an invention has to be non-obvious?

It’s likely the result of a business agreement between both parties and not a court ruling.

 

[MP3Mike]

My understanding is that under the ruling any use of a digital camera to read the speed limit sign was a patent infringement. Only very recently has this been resolved.

I've never heard of a court case/ruling, or that it has been resolved. Do you have a link to any of that information?

 

[bob_p]

Either Musk relented and cut a deal with Mobile Eye to license the patent, or Tesla found a workaround.

For example, the patent appears to cover using cameras to detect speed limit signs with that data being used by a local computer to control driving. It may not cover the use of the cameras to detect speed limit signs and then send that information to an online database - which is then used by all vehicles in the area.

Of course, even if Tesla licenses the patent or finds a workaround, the software still needs to properly interpret the speed limit signs - and some of those signs are difficult for human drivers to interpret and confirm which lanes are covered by that speed limit...

 

[Hoodoo]

Interesting approach! Might even increase accuracy. Even without speed limits signs one can probably get a pretty good idea of the speed limit but analyzing speed of previous vehicles in a given location traveling in a given direction. Pretty anything would be an improvement over dangerously inadequate map-based data.

I am still surprised such a patent was granted - reminds me of people patenting DNA sequences found in Nature a while back This practice was later declared invalid I believe. Seems like Elon has the $$$ to challenge such a sweeping and rather obvious patent.

I also agree that there are some rather unique speed limit signs. And on the Autobahn etc (and other freeways) traffic-dependent speed limits...