We rented a Mazda CX-50 from Budget during our last trip to Texas, and like many cars, it displays the speed limit on its dashboard, which you can see as "55" in the picture below. It seemed odd that it would disappear for a while, only to return as we approached a new speed limit sign. I thought the car might actually be reading the signs, but I had never heard of anything like that.
Took a little research to find that some newer cars have a Traffic Sign Recognition (TSR) system that uses a small, forward-facing camera, typically located near the rearview mirror, to scan the road ahead for traffic signs, and an onboard image processing computer to recognize a variety of road signs. The TSR can be combined with the car's navigation system, which may have limited or outdated speed limit data, to keep the driver better informed.
That's all good, but the Mazda included one very annoying feature. Look closely at the end of the needle on the speedometer, and you will see that the speed limit is highlighted in red with a red line curving to the limit of the current speed. That piece of nanny-nagging is too much.
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