What's the likelihood we will see Speed Limit Sign recognition?

[AaronD]

Just want to add that reading speed limit signs isn’t sufficient on its own. If you turn into a street, there’s a good chance there is no speed limit sign immediately visible. In that case you either know the speed from having driven the road before (I.e. saved speed limits in the car) or you make an educated guess of what the speed should be for the type of road/conditions.

Further, you need to be able to adjust your speed based on other types of conditions. If there’s a bike lane with minimal distance to the driving lane then courtesy and safety dictate you don’t pass the bicycle going 30+ miles faster than it unless your sufficiently far away that the wake the car will generate won’t knock over the cyclist.

Or you could have kids playing ball along the side of the street and you have to anticipate/allow for the ball going into the street and a kid doing something stupid.

 

[bob_p]

Musk stated that systems relying on HD maps will never work, because the vehicles must be able to operate under current conditions - not when the HD maps were created.

The same argument holds true for speed limit signs and traffic signals/signs - stored and fleet data can only go so far, to achieve FSD the system must react to current conditions - including speed limit signs (that may have been changed, added or removed recently).

This is an obvious problem - and surely Tesla understands that - and is working on a solution, though until they are confident their solution works and is clear of any patents - wouldn't be surprised for them to be pretty quiet about this - and not disclose anything until they've filed their own patents to protect their solution.

Patience...

 

[brkaus]

Of course, there is always the rare situation when a tractor trailer in the next lane is blocking the view of the sign.

Situational awareness or a tiny glimpse of a sign help solve the problem, but not always 100% effective.

some combo of maps and sign reading will be necessary in my opinion.

 

[dbldwn02]

Thanks for the reminder everyone. It's that time of the year where I send an e-mail to Tesla about the speed limit being wrong in only one direction on my way to work. 2 lane rural road with no cross streets. 45mph instead of the posted 55 makes AP useless on a perfect road for it.

 

[Cheburashka]

Could be worse. There is a freeway not too far from my house where the speed limit abruptly drops to 35, then goes back to 65.

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Could be worse. There is a freeway not too far from my house where the speed limit abruptly drops to 35, then goes back to 65.

Got you beat on that....

On I-75 Southbound, near the junction with I-575, where the freeway normally has a 65 mph speed limit, there's a 30 yard section with a posted 55 mph speed limit.

Its in a section of road that's had a lot of construction and used to be under a temporary 55 mph speed limit. But the road crews left one of the 55mph signs in place.

 

[dbldwn02]

Could be worse. There is a freeway not too far from my house where the speed limit abruptly drops to 35, then goes back to 65.

Got you beat on that....

On I-75 Southbound, near the junction with I-575, where the freeway normally has a 65 mph speed limit, there's a 30 yard section with a posted 55 mph speed limit.

Its in a section of road that's had a lot of construction and used to be under a temporary 55 mph speed limit. But the road crews left one of the 55mph signs in place.

I'll take both of those over 10 miles of not being able to use AP. Haha.

 

[PrGrPa]

Nearly 2 years ago a road I often use had its limit changed from 40mph to 30mph. AP data maintains it is still 40mph. Easier to cope with than the cases where the limit has increased but AP restricts you I suppose.

 

[PhilDavid]

Nearly 2 years ago a road I often use had its limit changed from 40mph to 30mph. AP data maintains it is still 40mph. Easier to cope with than the cases where the limit has increased but AP restricts you I suppose.

Would they need to figure out speed limit sign recognition before declaring FSD "feature complete?"

 

[boonedocks]

Would they need to figure out speed limit sign recognition before declaring FSD "feature complete?"

Probably not if you use Elon as a metric

 

[PhilDavid]

Probably not if you use Elon as a metric

Isn't automatically adjusting to the posted speed limits part of FSD?

 

[boonedocks]

Isn't automatically adjusting to the posted speed limits part of FSD?

You and I think so.....TEslaon have been monkeying around with definitions of FSD AP etc etc etc over the past few years that who knows what will be labeled "feature complete" for the purposes of recognized revenue and saving face.....

 

[M3BlueGeorgia]

Would they need to figure out speed limit sign recognition before declaring FSD "feature complete?"

Absolutely.

However, my usual disclaimer on "feature complete" as a software development term, is that (misquoting Churchill) it is the end of the beginning not the beginning of the end for any software development project.

 

[Battpower]

imo acting purely on written signs.... or even partially acting on them is problematic.

Countdown signs often include the exact representation of the sign being counted down to.

In roadworks / construction zones there are often misplaced or unclear / contradictory signs. In some cases the original signage is left in place as well as temporary limits. At weekends or when work is concluded, temporary limit signs or deviation / detour / diversion signs may or may not be left in place.

Temporary signage is in general rather difficult to deal with, as is the question of liability for issues that may arise. Related to liability is the need for far better maintenance of foliage that grows over signs as well as damage including vandalism.

 

[PhilDavid]

imo acting purely on written signs.... or even partially acting on them is problematic.

Countdown signs often include the exact representation of the sign being counted down to.

In roadworks / construction zones there are often misplaced or unclear / contradictory signs. In some cases the original signage is left in place as well as temporary limits. At weekends or when work is concluded, temporary limit signs or deviation / detour / diversion signs may or may not be left in place.

Temporary signage is in general rather difficult to deal with, as is the question of liability for issues that may arise. Related to liability is the need for far better maintenance of foliage that grows over signs as well as damage including vandalism.

Such situations would also confuse human drivers but within reason speed limit signs need to be adhered to.

Obviously a 100mph sign would not make sense on a small road but if the previous limit was 45mph, and you just saw a sign that reads 35mph, that sign probably be followed by FSD.

 

[Tim-in-CA]

Let's also not forget that GPS/location based speed limits are wildly unreliable. Case in point, on a stretch of 5 fwy between OC and LA, there is construction where the lanes shift. In this section, if you are on AP and say going 70 (assuming its not stopped!), the car will abruptly change its speed to 35mph as it assumes that you are on the service road. The first time it happened to me, it scared me sh*tless! I thought that I was going to get rear ended. This also happens during freeway interchanges/transitions where AP will unnecessarily drop your speed to 65~70. I really hate this feature, I wish that there was a way to disable auto speed adjustment.

 

[PhilDavid]

I find it patently crazy that you need to pay someone a royalty so software can use basic pattern recognition to read a speed limit sign in order to follow the law.

 

[Battpower]

I find it patently crazy that you need to pay someone a royalty so software can use basic pattern recognition to read a speed limit sign in order to follow the law.

Right. Especially when you consider that number plate recognition is so similar. And none are far removed from document scanning and OCR. You'd think there would be many ways to circumvent patents as well. Seems crazy.

 

[PhilDavid]

Right. Especially when you consider that number plate recognition is so similar. And none are far removed from document scanning and OCR. You'd think there would be many ways to circumvent patents as well. Seems crazy.

So you are saying our cars need a document scanner connected to the AP system?

 

[Battpower]

So you are saying our cars need a document scanner connected to the AP system?

I'll try anything. Something has to be better that the current way the car decides on a speed limit!

When you look at how engineering designers from the industrial revolution went about circumventing patents with some seriously whacky designs, I can't believe there isn't some way to read road signs without infringement.