Is your car telling you to SPEED? Electric and hybrid owners say built-in tech is instructing them to do 80mph in school areas – and some models might speed up automatically
The latest technology in electric and hybrid cars has come under fire for advising drivers they can go 80 mph in 30 mph zones, including in old schools.
The (TSR) system reads signs with special cameras and informs drivers about environmental conditions, including speed limits, with audio and visual cues.
However, online forums are full of owners complaining that the feature, which currently comes as standard on the £55,000 Mazda CX-60 and £37,000 Volvo XC40, misreads signs and sets off alarms to warn them they are in 80mph, 90mph or even 160mph zones, which do not exist under UK road laws.
One driver reported being told he could go 80mph in a Sainsbury’s car park, another said the issue was causing ‘commotion’ in schools, while a third commented: ‘So far 10 reads 70, 19 reads 90 and 30 reads 80. ‘This is really dangerous.’
Although faulty warnings can be ignored, some driver assistance packages connect the TSR to a self-adaptive cruise control system. This may cause the vehicle to suddenly accelerate or automatically brake to comply with a misread speed limit.
This can create dangerous situations, especially in high-performance cars such as the £96,000 Porsche Macan Turbo, which can accelerate from 0 to 60 mph in 3.3 seconds.
A Porsche Macan owner named Helen posted online: ‘The speed sign recognition feature has never worked effectively (or safely) since I bought the car, so I had to turn it off.
‘After the last time I tried it, the car suddenly went from 70mph to 5mph when it mistakenly read the 50mph sign. Luckily there was nothing fast or heavy behind me and I was able to quickly take over driving.’
The £55,000 Mazda CX-60 has technology that reads speed limit signs and warns the driver to speed up or slow down, but owners say the system is making mistakes
Volvo XC40 owners complain that Traffic Sign Recognition system makes potentially dangerous errors
Capable of going from 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds, the £96,000 Porsche Macan Turbo can automatically accelerate and decelerate to match the speed limit
Mazda CX-60 owner Richard Wright, 45, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told the Mail: ‘The car has a head-up display so all useful driver information, including the speed limit, is projected onto the windscreen. This is designed to eliminate having to look at your regular dials.
‘If you’re constantly flashing warnings saying you need to accelerate from 30 mph to 80 mph or slow down to 5 mph in a 50 mph zone, it’s extremely distracting.
‘Several times it caused me to apply the brakes while driving in a perfectly safe and legal manner. “This is a real problem.”
On other motoring forums, Fallyn Kinsella posted: ‘Mine always does this in certain areas, especially in school zones where the road drops to 20 mph – creating mayhem with signs.’
Stephen Gauld reported seeing ’80 display while in Sainsbury’s car park’, Chloe Byrne complained about being told she could do 80mph in a 60mph zone, while Liz Robinson wrote: ‘Ours do this quite often in a 30mph zone.’
One person described almost daily problems with ‘speed limits being displayed as 5mph, 80mph or 100mph on roads where they are actually 30, 40, 50mph’.
The problem appears to have been ongoing for more than a year and dealers continue to sell vehicles without informing customers about the problem.
Driver-assist technology uses a mix of camera and GPS data to read speed limit signs and display them on the dashboard. The system is expected to help drivers stay safe by displaying the legal speed at all times.
But the technology turned out to be unreliable, mistakenly reading labels on trucks and even signs on side roads. Volkswagen recently decided not to fit the feature to cars in Australia, saying the feature had been ‘rushed to market’ by rivals and was prone to ‘bugs’.
Last night Mazda UK said it was investigating the matter after being contacted by the Mail.
A spokesman said: ‘Safety systems in vehicles provide additional assistance to the driver, but it is the driver’s responsibility to monitor road conditions, speed and road signs while in control of the vehicle. We are currently investigating the issue raised and will report back to our colleagues at Mazda Motor Corporation.’
Porsche said it was working on a fix, but dirty or unclear traffic signs could disrupt the system.
A spokesman said: ‘Porsche Macan owners will soon be offered a new software package that will be installed free of charge at Porsche Centres. This integrates existing system improvements and further optimizes the driving experience.
‘Among other features, this will bring about further improvements in traffic sign recognition technology. The driver must still always be careful and intervene in suspicious situations. ‘Adaptive cruise control on the Macan is also an option and the customer can turn it off.’
Volvo was contacted.
