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Comment by romanr | Hacker News Reader

So it appears it's reading the road signs? I see it stops on the intersection with a stop sign where's no traffic lights. But what if the sign is damaged or removed? The car will go straight without stopping?

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> But what if the sign is damaged or removed? The car will go straight without stopping?

Probably the same thing a new-to-the-area human would do if the sign was removed. Where I live there are many intersections where only 1 road has stop signs. I'd imagine there are other areas were the norm is a 4 way stop.

As for damaged, I would imagine it can still recognize the sign as often in image recognition you do not need the whole picture to confirm a match.

If a stop sign was removed, I probably would've driven straight through without stopping too. How would I know there used to be a stop sign?

Yes, i mean what happens more often- if sign is not fully removed, but bent by collision or turned sideways by hooligans or something. Human would recognize that. Car will not.

Most algorithms can handle slightly turned signs. However signs that are gone could be dangerous.

Sounds like the cars should share a centralized database of critical sign locations, and cross reference their GPS location with the database. When they approach a location that the database says should have a sign, and one is not detected, it should behave as if there was a sign, and report the incident to somebody.

A stop sign is paired with a stop line in the road which can be seen. It will also see other cars and react accordingly if they are not following their own stop signs. An SDC doesn't really need a stop sign.

I hope they are using GPS/Map data for existing signs along with visual identification of the signs. Even when the gps is not accurate enough, the system should amplify the accuracy of the location based on permanent objects and the topography.

Either on the first video or some news, i think i heard the ability to drive where the lanes are not clearly defined. Things such as snow would absolutely requires such reconstruction.

Normally if there's no priority sign, the principle of priority to the right[0] should be employed.

[0] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Priority_to_the_right

What would you do if a stop sign was removed?

Maybe it's relying on maps & GPS data.

What if the GPS data is outdated?

What would you do if you'd remember there used to be a stop sign there, and now it's gone?

I'm still having a hard time not stopping at the intersection by my old high school and they removed the stop sign there 3 years ago!

No tesla expert but I think they have an extension package that would let the car adjust itself based on previous "experience".

IIRC it would automatically make a note of your location when you pass speed bumps or bad patches of road and adjust the suspension accordingly.

If there is no STOP sign, I don't see how it would know to stop. However, what's interesting is if it goes through an intersection with a STOP sign and the next day the sign has been knocked over by strong wind - will it stop? What if the sign is missing, but there's a STOP sign on the opposite end of the intersection - a human driver will infer that his own side also has a STOP sign, but will the car?

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