[shadowgovt]

Successfully executing on that design requires way more global data than the autopilot system alone requires.

... which is not to say they shouldn't do it. In fact, in the 21st century with ubiquitous communication we could even consider mandating that of all cruise controls. But if we were to codify that into law, we'd want a data source a touch more reliable than whatever Google, Apple, an Waze have cooked up as the speed limits on each road in the map (since those limits are currently at the safety threshold of "advisory to estimate travel times," not "someone could die if these numbers are wrong").

[zip1234]

I don't understand why limiting the upper bound of speed when a user is using autopilot would be difficult at all? These cars can already recognize speed limit signs and have settings for 'how much over the speed limit do you want to be'.

[shadowgovt]

> These cars can already recognize speed limit signs

Do you mean they're actually reading the signs as they pass on the road, or they have a map associating the current position on the road to a speed limit for that road?

If the former, the cutting edge of that technology I'm aware of isn't good enough to trust it to a safety system. And that's before we factor in added risks like "speed limit sign was obscured by a passing truck while the car drove past it so the car maintained speed."

If the latter, that's possible but it's not where Tesla is right now. Tesla doesn't own its maps, it's trusting Google, which doesn't certify the speed limits are correct enough in its map data to wire a safety system to that output.

[Jerrrry]

bullshit

all the maps have built in speedometers with an alarming red rectangle when you are speeding.

the data for what the speed limit is is generally public, or very obviously derivable from principles-first, common sense engineering

autopilot has more than enough data to know its not on a freeway, and shouldn't be doing 60mph+ between nodes on a graph

[sigstoat]

> or very obviously derivable from principles-first, common sense engineering

do you actually drive in the US?

there's no shortage of stretches of perfectly straight road where the speed limit drops for no apparent reason.

[shadowgovt]

> all the maps have built in speedometers with an alarming red rectangle when you are speeding

By "all the maps," do you mean "Apple, Google, and Waze?" If so, see my previous statement; they're offering a driver-assist, but they're not ultimately responsible for your safety so their data doesn't need to be fully accurate. Tesla is pulling its data for the in-car map from Google. Nobody is going to try and sue Google if they're in a crash because "the little red box that tells me I'm speeding didn't show up, Your Honor." And Google has made clear that it indemnifies itself from such liability in provision of the map data (i.e. "You're holding it wrong" if you wire Google's idea of what speed limits are directly into the control plane a life-or-death machine).

So Tesla would have to take ownership of that problem directly... Put its own fleet of cars on the road to drive around and photograph speed limits. They could actually hypothetically do that given the cameras on the Teslas if they push data from the driver back to HQ. What's the data licensing agreement look like on owning a Tesla? Does it already grant Tesla that privilege by virtue of someone owning their car?

> the data for what the speed limit is is generally public, or very obviously derivable from principles-first, common sense engineering

Public, yes, but must be consolidated, validated, and kept up-to-date. And the principles-first "common sense engineering" does not describe how America's roads are actually labeled and structured, sadly.

> autopilot has more than enough data to know its not on a freeway

Does it? I don't think Autopilot has any concept of what road it's on; it's not consolidated with the Tesla's navigation map. It's viewing the road directly and looking for local lane markers and obstacles.

Such a consolidation with the global data to understand current speed limit would imply new design safety constraints for both the Autopilot and the onboard map systems.

[michaelmrose]

Consumer gps doesn't always know which road one is on and could trivially decide to use an adjacent street with a wildly different speed.

It's also sometimes unclear about where transitions happen.

It also never accounts for actual speed of travel diverging substantially because citizens including Police have collectively decided that a different speed is more reasonable.

Basically such a system would probably be completely useless enough to ruin all cruise control.

[supportlocal4h]

My onboard map doesn't have red rectangles when speeding. And the little speed limit overlay is wrong at least 25% of the time.