Is your automotive telling you to SPEED? Electric and hybrid homeowners say onboard tech is instructing them to do 80mph at school areas

Driver of some electric and hybrid cars are being advised by onboard technology that they can do 80mph in 30mph zones – including past schools.

Those fitted with a ‘traffic sign recognition’ system (TSR) use cameras to read signs and give drivers audio and visual cues of limits.

But online forums are full of owners complaining that the feature – which is standard on the £55,000 Mazda CX-60 and £37,000 Volvo XC40 – has been misreading signs and setting off alarms to warn them they are in 80mph, 90mph and even 100mph zones that don’t exist on British roads. 

One driver reported being advised he could do 80mph in a Sainsbury’s car park, another said the problem causes ‘mayhem’ around schools, while a third commented: ‘So far it has read ten as 70, 19 as 90 and 30 as 80. It’s really dangerous.’

While faulty alerts can be ignored, some driver-assistance packages link TSR to adaptive cruise control, which can make the vehicle accelerate or brake automatically to match an incorrectly read speed limit.

This can create dangerous situations, especially with high-performance cars such as the £96,000 Porsche Macan Turbo, which can go from 0-60mph in 3.3 seconds.

Cars such as the Mazda CX-60 (pictured) have been allegedly misreading signs and setting off alarms to warn them they are in 80mph, 90mph and even 100mph zones that don’t exist on British roads

Volvo XC40 (pictured) is another car online forums reportedly claim have been misreading road signs

Macan owner Helen posted online: ‘The speed sign recognition has never worked effectively (or safely)… so I’ve had to turn the function off. The last time I tried it, the car abruptly changed from 70mph to 5mph when it incorrectly read a 50mph sign.’

Mazda CX-60 owner Richard Wright, 45, from Tunbridge Wells, Kent, told the Daily Mail: ‘It’s constantly flashing up warnings that you should be doing 80mph in a 30mph, or to slow to 5mph in a 50mph zone. It is a real issue.’

Mazda UK said it was investigating the issue, but added that it was the responsibility of the driver to monitor road signs.

Porsche said dirty or unclear traffic signs can confuse its system, but Macan owners would soon get a free software update.

Volvo did not comment.