Interestingly, Tesla’s earliest autopilot software (made by Mobileye) could read and respond to speed limit signs, but MobilEye patented that ability and so when Tesla switched to their in-house software, they lost that ability.
Seems insane to me that you can patent reading a speed limit sign, since reading signs is what signs are for and is necessary to obey the law, but there we go… “with a computer” seems sufficient grounds to make something patentable.
I was wondering what happened. I knew they used to be able to actually read the signs, but now its all a database that can be quite wrong. I think the DB is nice to have, since signs can be few and far between, but would really like to see it back to reading signs.
I don't understand how that could possibly stand up as a patent. It shouldn't pass the obviousness test. Reading a sign is a super obvious thing to do. But you would still have to spend millions fighting it in court. Which is insane.
What model do you have? The 3 definitely doesn't read speed limit signs. Or at least doesn't use the information if it does read them. It will drive right past a sign that says 25MPH and still say the limit is 35MPH. Or drive past a 45MPH and say its 35MPH. Things like that. And there is no way to even report it being wrong, that I have been able to find.
Ha, subscription fee to pay for the license to the patent troll.
Then people will install modded bionic eyes firmware downloaded from Ukranian websites[1]. The future will be like Cyberpunk 2077, except the hacks are just to bypass paywall DRM.
Seems insane to me that you can patent reading a speed limit sign, since reading signs is what signs are for and is necessary to obey the law, but there we go… “with a computer” seems sufficient grounds to make something patentable.