Incorrect speed limit display
Discussion
I live near a sleepy village on the edge of Windsor Great Park, through which the A30 trunk road runs. There's a national speed limit section between the villages of Englefield Green and Virginia Water, where I am often gritting my teeth when stuck behind the swathes of drivers who fail to accelerate as they come out of the 40mph zones where the road passes each of the two villages I mentioned. Most drivers seem to be completely oblivious to the national speed limit signs - if they notice them at all, I suspect that many of them have no idea what the sign means.
The other day my sister came to visit from Oop North, and I was riding with her as a passenger in her 2019 Lexus something or other. A horrible looking car by all accounts, and she has since swapped it for a new BMW X5 hybrid which is a much nicer car from the inside at least. Anyway, we were on the A30, stuck behind someone who surprise, surprise, failed to accelerate as we exited the 40mph zone. I remarked that it was another 40mph everywhere driver, and that if she wanted to get past, she should do it now before the onslaught of oncoming traffic came our way.
"But the speed limit is 40", she said. "He's doing 40, so I can't overtake now!"
"No it's not", I said, pointing to the NSL signs. "It's 60!"
"That's not what my car says", she said, pointing to the little 40 roundel on her dash.
At this point, I told her that I'd been swearing at drivers on this stretch for years, wondering why people have forgotten what national speed limit means. When I learned to drive in 1991, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't drive as fast as allowed, if not faster at any given moment. Something has definitely changed in the psyche of the average driver, and enjoying driving is no longer even slightly on their radar.
But if the licence-holding sheep are being told by their cars that an NSL road is actually 40, I have a slightly more lenient view on their behaviour. After all, one cannot expect drivers to look out of their windscreens and observe actual traffic signage!
So what the heck is going on? Apart from a week last year when the speed limit was temporarily lowered to 40 while some work took place, this section of road has been NSL my entire life, so that's going on 50 years at least. How can her car get it so wrong? I don't know whether her car had traffic sign recognition or whether it worked on some sort of sat-nav database, but either way it goes to show that the technology is every bit as fallible as the drivers who rely on it rather than actually reading road signs.
If you know this stretch of road, what speed limit does your car 'think' applies? Is this a common problem in other places? My newest car is a 2014 Porsche, and it displays the speed at this location by reading its database. It's frequently wrong in other areas, where speed limits have been lowered since the database was last updated. But I've never known it to show a speed LOWER than the posted limit!
The other day my sister came to visit from Oop North, and I was riding with her as a passenger in her 2019 Lexus something or other. A horrible looking car by all accounts, and she has since swapped it for a new BMW X5 hybrid which is a much nicer car from the inside at least. Anyway, we were on the A30, stuck behind someone who surprise, surprise, failed to accelerate as we exited the 40mph zone. I remarked that it was another 40mph everywhere driver, and that if she wanted to get past, she should do it now before the onslaught of oncoming traffic came our way.
"But the speed limit is 40", she said. "He's doing 40, so I can't overtake now!"
"No it's not", I said, pointing to the NSL signs. "It's 60!"
"That's not what my car says", she said, pointing to the little 40 roundel on her dash.
At this point, I told her that I'd been swearing at drivers on this stretch for years, wondering why people have forgotten what national speed limit means. When I learned to drive in 1991, you'd be hard-pressed to find anyone who didn't drive as fast as allowed, if not faster at any given moment. Something has definitely changed in the psyche of the average driver, and enjoying driving is no longer even slightly on their radar.
But if the licence-holding sheep are being told by their cars that an NSL road is actually 40, I have a slightly more lenient view on their behaviour. After all, one cannot expect drivers to look out of their windscreens and observe actual traffic signage!
So what the heck is going on? Apart from a week last year when the speed limit was temporarily lowered to 40 while some work took place, this section of road has been NSL my entire life, so that's going on 50 years at least. How can her car get it so wrong? I don't know whether her car had traffic sign recognition or whether it worked on some sort of sat-nav database, but either way it goes to show that the technology is every bit as fallible as the drivers who rely on it rather than actually reading road signs.
If you know this stretch of road, what speed limit does your car 'think' applies? Is this a common problem in other places? My newest car is a 2014 Porsche, and it displays the speed at this location by reading its database. It's frequently wrong in other areas, where speed limits have been lowered since the database was last updated. But I've never known it to show a speed LOWER than the posted limit!
Wife's Qashqai will always revert to 60 on a 30 MPH road, at a certain spot every time we pass on the way to our sons.
Can't fathom what its detecting to make it think its a 60, no signs obviously, but every time, exact same point it changes.
Technology has failings, who'd have thought it.
Can't fathom what its detecting to make it think its a 60, no signs obviously, but every time, exact same point it changes.
Technology has failings, who'd have thought it.
This stretch of road is very local to me. My car thinks the speed limit is whatever I think it is. Like you, I follow the NSL (60mph) signage. With everyone relying on their cars to do the driving and thinking for them, this is just one example of the braindead society we're heading into.
Rozzers said:
If you’re going to rely on the dash you’ll need a car that reads the actual signs, and not use an ancient gps database.
Even that wouldn't be infallible (these signs have been like this for a couple of years at least). I had an Ionic once (horribly dull but a necessity at the time) that knew where the M1 Roadworks stretch was outside Milton Keynes and knew the speed limit because of them was 40.
This was great until they increased the limit to 50 but the software in the car didn't update to reflect that.
This meant ten miles of the car making a horrid alert sound every twenty seconds or so for about 10 miles. Drove me nuts and there was no way at all to disable it or update the system to the new limit.
Another reason I do not miss that car.
This was great until they increased the limit to 50 but the software in the car didn't update to reflect that.
This meant ten miles of the car making a horrid alert sound every twenty seconds or so for about 10 miles. Drove me nuts and there was no way at all to disable it or update the system to the new limit.
Another reason I do not miss that car.
NSL is a maximum. It isn't a target.
I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
No substitute for using your senses when driving, including road signs. You shouldn't be behind the wheel otherwise. Even reverse cameras remind you to check your surroundings for safety.
I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
No substitute for using your senses when driving, including road signs. You shouldn't be behind the wheel otherwise. Even reverse cameras remind you to check your surroundings for safety.
captain.scarlet said:
NSL is a maximum. It isn't a target.
I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
Except if you continued at 40mph into an NSL while on your driving test, you'd be failed, because it's potentially dangerous. There's such a thing as consideration for others, and driving at a pace that you're comfortable with is not acceptable if it means you're holding up traffic which legitimately could be going 50% faster. You're increasing the risk of a rear-end collision for you, and you're encouraging other drivers into overtaking you which by definition carries more risk than not overtaking.I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
captain.scarlet said:
NSL is a maximum. It isn't a target.
I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
No substitute for using your senses when driving, including road signs. You shouldn't be behind the wheel otherwise. Even reverse cameras remind you to check your surroundings for safety.
I hear this argument a lot in defense of the "40mph brigade" and it doesn't really carry any weight for me. I don't by any means try to pin the speedo to 60 whenever I see a white sign with a black line, the problem is that 40-45mph is the default daydreaming speed for what seems like most drivers, I'm sure you'd speed up to 60 on a suitable section of road, a clear straight for example. Many don't, and continue at the same speed. I reasonably consider all factors and drive at a pace that I'm comfortable with.
No substitute for using your senses when driving, including road signs. You shouldn't be behind the wheel otherwise. Even reverse cameras remind you to check your surroundings for safety.
The kind of driver that flashes when you overtake, for example, or speeds up(!) to try and block you. The kind of driver that brakes when there is anything bigger than a Micra coming the other way, yet passes cyclists within elbow shaving distance. There are speed cameras on a 50mph section near me. 9/10 drivers will slow down to 30 or 40 through them. Why?
It is these kinds of drivers that are causing the problems, not you or I who may consider ourselves more "suitably educated" on driving. I don't know how you drive, but I suspect that I would not be frustrated if I was behind you on an NSL road.
In many ways it is a target, in that it is important to make progress as much as possible to reduce risk. 60mph around the twisties is high risk, but so is 40mph along a clear straight on a sunny day when it is possible to do more, as it will cause certain other drivers stuck behind to become frustrated and take extra risk in trying to get past. Make sense?
It's not personal, so I don't mean to rant at or pick on you in particular, but I do hear it a lot and it bothers me. If people drove at 40 to be safer, they'd be safer in many other aspects of their driving, which for the most part, they are not.
Axe wound said:
Got bored 20 secs in but I'm pretty sure the highway code encourages people to rely on what a road sign says above anything else. Must be something in the water up there.
Not gonna lie, this made me chuckle, especially as it was the immediate post after the OP. (sorry OP).Durzel said:
Axe wound said:
Got bored 20 secs in but I'm pretty sure the highway code encourages people to rely on what a road sign says above anything else. Must be something in the water up there.
Not gonna lie, this made me chuckle, especially as it was the immediate post after the OP. (sorry OP).An example of a driver relying on the car to determine their driving instead of the driver actually being in charge?
Too much “driver aid” rubbish in the car that is not actually an aid and induces a lowering of actual driving standard.
The more a car influences a driver the less they think they need to control and switch off from ever changing conditions or us3 common sense.
Too much “driver aid” rubbish in the car that is not actually an aid and induces a lowering of actual driving standard.
The more a car influences a driver the less they think they need to control and switch off from ever changing conditions or us3 common sense.
LunarOne said:
Durzel said:
Axe wound said:
Got bored 20 secs in but I'm pretty sure the highway code encourages people to rely on what a road sign says above anything else. Must be something in the water up there.
Not gonna lie, this made me chuckle, especially as it was the immediate post after the OP. (sorry OP).‘I didn’t have the time (or skills?) to write a short message so I wrote a long one’
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