Post by @glloyd@fosstodon.org

2026-07-19 09:56 UTC

Software bug that I&#39;ve seen in the wild. I&#39;m so glad it&#39;s non critical. Driving along and the car tells you the speed limit for where you are driving. I (not being a driver) assumed it was GPS and map data that made this system work. But no, it&#39;s a camera and optical character recognition. It just reads street signs. So the bug was, while in the woods, there are carved and painted speed limit signs for the dirt path, 10mph. The error, it often interpreted it as 70mph. #SoftwareEngineering

Replies (2)

@AlexSW101@tech.lgbt 2026-07-19 10:31

@glloyd@fosstodon.org I remember hiring a car with this setup about 15 years ago (i doubt it's got better since); but e.g. you could be driving on a 40 road, and the 20 sign for a side-street might be tilted towards you, and the car would dramatically slow down to 20, much to the terror of the drivers behind you

Open ##5418204
@shaedrich@mastodon.online 2026-07-19 14:05

@glloyd@fosstodon.org Well, that's a classic case of "just because you *can* use something for something, it doesn't mean, you *should* or *have* to." Sure, optical character recognition *could* improve over the next years, but it will always have a margin of error, because it just takes a huge effort to get basic information right. It's a great fallback when map or GPS data is missing, but it's a terrible primary source to rely on.

Open ##5418206