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Absolutely. My 2021 Audi has traffic sign recognition, and recognizes school zone signs, flags them as such on the console and heads up display. It also recogni

Absolutely. My 2021 Audi has traffic sign recognition, and recognizes school zone signs, flags them as such on the console and heads up display. It also recognizes the flashing light indicating that the school zone is "active". But yet, Tesla, the "not-dinosaur", screws this up completely? Oof. AND, if you have adaptive cruise, it will absolutely recognize the discrepancy between your speed and school zones, and will decelerate the car to that speed.

radlad 5y ago
Many school zones do not have flashing lights. Isn't the correct answer today that humans should override in these situations? Frankly, as a human I also find "during restricted hours" signs frustrating. How do I know which hours those are?
- mjevans 5y ago
  A zone near me has two different sign indicator systems. They appear to go off at different intervals. In both cases I don't see humans around. I would not be surprised if the time the crossing guards and children were present was a completely different, third time.
  - rconti 5y ago
    I still don't know what is meant by "when children are present". On the sidewalk? In the playground? In the classroom?
    - aidenn0 5y ago
      I asked a CHP officer once and they said "In or near the crosswalks, including sidewalks near crosswalks." Note that police officers are not necessarily up on all of the intricacies of the law though.
    - freddie_mercury 5y ago
      You act like this is somehow unknowable. Did you try to google for it? Did you look up the actual laws where you are? It isn't hard to find the answer. If you're in California, then Vehicle Code 22352 defines it. The same will be true for every other place in the world.
      - rconti 5y ago
        That's a fair point. I grew up in Washington, where I believe it was not defined at all. It was a bit of a hobby of mine to look up vehicular RCWs when I began driving, and the Internet was available. But it's also possible it's something that puzzled me pre-Internet, and I never bothered to look up post-Internet. There are plenty of those as well.
- nkrisc 5y ago
  It is frustrating that it isn't clearly delineated, but you should be fine basing your guess on some reasonable assumptions: schools are busiest during drop off and pickup, with kids out and about near the road, very good chance those times are included in the "restricted hours", possibly the hours in between as well. Public and secular schools are typically not open on weekends, very likely any weekend hour is not restricted. Schools are usually closed during the summer months and for a time during winter break. This can be tricky because school still can have very different schedules and you may not know them if you don't have kid sin school, but again context can help: is the parking lot completely empty? No one around? School's probably not in session, restricted hours probably don't apply. If you were ticketed for speeding in a school zone during morning drop off, I think you'd have a hard time arguing you didn't know it was a restricted time. Maybe during lunch you could make a case, I guess it would depend on the judge you got.
  - brokenmachine 5y ago
    >arguing you didn't know it was a restricted time What difference does that make? If it is, you get a fine. Just like any other road rule.
    - nkrisc 5y ago
      In the US at least you can typically contest a ticket. If you feel it was unjust or unfair you can make your case before a judge, doesn’t mean you get it overturned. If the sign didn’t state hours and it wasn’t clear it was a restricted time, maybe you could make a case.
- reaperducer 5y ago
  Frankly, as a human I also find "during restricted hours" signs frustrating. How do I know which hours those are? As a human being, you weigh the risks and make a choice. Which has the worse outcome — getting to your destination 18 seconds later, or killing a child?
- ohgodplsno 5y ago
  Then just respect those limitations at all times. The school zone will last a whole 200m, you can live with driving 20 in there all the time instead of wondering if you can go full speed in a school zone.
GordonS 5y ago
I'm sure I saw cars with an option to read speed limit signs about 10 years back. Really boggles the mind that Tesla have gotten away with calling their cars "Full Self Driving".
- Sebb767 5y ago
  > I'm sure I saw cars with an option to read speed limit signs about 10 years back. To be fair, those systems were just best-effort. I'm pretty sure Teslas can handle far harder sign situations than those. The problem is the edge case and while Telsa may fair better, the older assistant systems did explicitly warn you that it was best effort.
Rebelgecko 5y ago
How does the adaptive cruise control know whether or not school is in session and children are on their way to/from school? Or does it slow you down even if it's Christmas morning? If your car forces you to go 20mph below the speed limit that seems like a major safety issue
- FredPret 5y ago
  A truly great AI will monitor Instagram post frequency to get to the bottom of this
- tallytarik 5y ago
  I think this is very much car-dependent, and probably even user-configurable. For example, the cruise control on my 2021 Mazda 3 doesn't enforce school zone speed limits (or any speed limits), although it recognises them and will flash on the HUD if you're exceeding the limit. Since it's not enforced, I can just ignore it if it has misidentified a speed sign. Although, school zone signs around my area actually include a bit of genius design: they are hinged in the middle [1], so during school holidays, the signs are covered up by closing the hinge. Finally, at least in suburban areas in Australia, a school zone covers a couple hundred metres at most. So even if you or your car gets it wrong, driving 20km/h under the speed limit is a very temporary inconvenience for drivers behind you (unlike, for example, driving 20km/h under the speed limit for 50 kilometres on a single-lane highway). [1] https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/8ae668f4-22fc-4f4d-9a10-b6dd00114939/r0_0_2000_1333_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/fr...
- RandallBrown 5y ago
  An easy solution is to always slow down in a school zone. If you want/need to drive faster in the school zone, you simply step on the accelerator and deactivate self-driving. You can turn it on again when through the school zone.

radlad 5y ago

Many school zones do not have flashing lights. Isn't the correct answer today that humans should override in these situations? Frankly, as a human I also find "during restricted hours" signs frustrating. How do I know which hours those are?

mjevans 5y ago
A zone near me has two different sign indicator systems. They appear to go off at different intervals. In both cases I don't see humans around. I would not be surprised if the time the crossing guards and children were present was a completely different, third time.
- rconti 5y ago
  I still don't know what is meant by "when children are present". On the sidewalk? In the playground? In the classroom?
  - aidenn0 5y ago
    I asked a CHP officer once and they said "In or near the crosswalks, including sidewalks near crosswalks." Note that police officers are not necessarily up on all of the intricacies of the law though.
  - freddie_mercury 5y ago
    You act like this is somehow unknowable. Did you try to google for it? Did you look up the actual laws where you are? It isn't hard to find the answer. If you're in California, then Vehicle Code 22352 defines it. The same will be true for every other place in the world.
    - rconti 5y ago
      That's a fair point. I grew up in Washington, where I believe it was not defined at all. It was a bit of a hobby of mine to look up vehicular RCWs when I began driving, and the Internet was available. But it's also possible it's something that puzzled me pre-Internet, and I never bothered to look up post-Internet. There are plenty of those as well.
nkrisc 5y ago
It is frustrating that it isn't clearly delineated, but you should be fine basing your guess on some reasonable assumptions: schools are busiest during drop off and pickup, with kids out and about near the road, very good chance those times are included in the "restricted hours", possibly the hours in between as well. Public and secular schools are typically not open on weekends, very likely any weekend hour is not restricted. Schools are usually closed during the summer months and for a time during winter break. This can be tricky because school still can have very different schedules and you may not know them if you don't have kid sin school, but again context can help: is the parking lot completely empty? No one around? School's probably not in session, restricted hours probably don't apply. If you were ticketed for speeding in a school zone during morning drop off, I think you'd have a hard time arguing you didn't know it was a restricted time. Maybe during lunch you could make a case, I guess it would depend on the judge you got.
- brokenmachine 5y ago
  >arguing you didn't know it was a restricted time What difference does that make? If it is, you get a fine. Just like any other road rule.
  - nkrisc 5y ago
    In the US at least you can typically contest a ticket. If you feel it was unjust or unfair you can make your case before a judge, doesn’t mean you get it overturned. If the sign didn’t state hours and it wasn’t clear it was a restricted time, maybe you could make a case.
reaperducer 5y ago
Frankly, as a human I also find "during restricted hours" signs frustrating. How do I know which hours those are? As a human being, you weigh the risks and make a choice. Which has the worse outcome — getting to your destination 18 seconds later, or killing a child?
ohgodplsno 5y ago
Then just respect those limitations at all times. The school zone will last a whole 200m, you can live with driving 20 in there all the time instead of wondering if you can go full speed in a school zone.

GordonS 5y ago

I'm sure I saw cars with an option to read speed limit signs about 10 years back. Really boggles the mind that Tesla have gotten away with calling their cars "Full Self Driving".

Sebb767 5y ago
> I'm sure I saw cars with an option to read speed limit signs about 10 years back. To be fair, those systems were just best-effort. I'm pretty sure Teslas can handle far harder sign situations than those. The problem is the edge case and while Telsa may fair better, the older assistant systems did explicitly warn you that it was best effort.

Rebelgecko 5y ago

How does the adaptive cruise control know whether or not school is in session and children are on their way to/from school? Or does it slow you down even if it's Christmas morning? If your car forces you to go 20mph below the speed limit that seems like a major safety issue

FredPret 5y ago
A truly great AI will monitor Instagram post frequency to get to the bottom of this
tallytarik 5y ago
I think this is very much car-dependent, and probably even user-configurable. For example, the cruise control on my 2021 Mazda 3 doesn't enforce school zone speed limits (or any speed limits), although it recognises them and will flash on the HUD if you're exceeding the limit. Since it's not enforced, I can just ignore it if it has misidentified a speed sign. Although, school zone signs around my area actually include a bit of genius design: they are hinged in the middle [1], so during school holidays, the signs are covered up by closing the hinge. Finally, at least in suburban areas in Australia, a school zone covers a couple hundred metres at most. So even if you or your car gets it wrong, driving 20km/h under the speed limit is a very temporary inconvenience for drivers behind you (unlike, for example, driving 20km/h under the speed limit for 50 kilometres on a single-lane highway). [1] https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/frm/silverstone-ct-migration/8ae668f4-22fc-4f4d-9a10-b6dd00114939/r0_0_2000_1333_w1200_h678_fmax.jpg https://www.canberratimes.com.au/images/transform/v1/crop/fr...
RandallBrown 5y ago
An easy solution is to always slow down in a school zone. If you want/need to drive faster in the school zone, you simply step on the accelerator and deactivate self-driving. You can turn it on again when through the school zone.