Road sign recognition

[Mark Woodward]

We've now owned our new GS450H for a month and are very impressed. The instrument displays are a little confusing as they seem to change 'on their own' e.g. one minute the HUD is showing the perceived speed limit sign and then will switch to 'lane-keep assist' for no apparent reason (I'm sure there is a reason though!). I commented recently on the inaccuracy of the road sign monitoring system i.e. display of speed limit signs - our old Volvo S80 had this feature and it worked perfectly. I took the car to the main Lexus dealer we had bought it from and they checked to ensure that it had the recent modification comprising a heater inside the camera 'pod' to alleviate condensation which, apparently, had caused some issues with this feature. They confirmed that the car did have this modification and that the seal around the pod was OK. They tested the system for a few miles and could not find a problem. I must say that subsequent to this visit to them the system has seemed better. One thing I do find strange is that upon stopping the car and parking up, upon returning and starting, the car won't display a speed limit until it 'sees' a new sign - this seems a bit daft as surely the last limit the car detected prior to park-up will still be relevent upon restarting - again our Volvo worked in this way.