March 5th, 2026Kyle’s Rant

But the real problem is now we have Teslas and a lot of other brands coming onboard with 'full self-driving' (supervised, of course) software. Now, I haven’t downloaded it to my car yet because I don’t think the roads are anywhere near up to scratch. However, I have been for a ride from central Melbourne to Port Melbourne and the tech is nothing short of miraculous. Taking on hook-turns, crossing four lanes of oncoming traffic with no arrow and intuitively negotiating traffic, people and bikes. But it relies on GPS speed limits and that’s where things come undone. I drove around a couple of towns in our patch and noticed a few discrepancies between the signed speed limit and the GPS speed limit that my Tesla and that of a visitor would adhere to in full self-driving mode and even if you were in full manual mode looking at the number on the screen.

In the automotive world, when science and technology overcomplicate things, you can find yourself in a world of pain if you unwittingly break the law.
I mean what happens if you’re busted in a 40-area going 60 in good faith that your car knew the limit? Particularly out here in the country where public transport doesn’t always run past your door, Uber is not yet in our vocabulary and taxis can cost an arm and a leg.

It pays to have your own car around these parts and the speed signage tends to change every five minutes, so if you don’t want to get pinged you have to have your wits about you. The road signage is also mixed up with all the other signage. Large blue trees, events and tradies trying to advertise for business.
The problem that I would like to shine my tiny torch upon is the void in speed limits between actual signed speed and GPS speed. The signed speed can be mixed up because some he/she on a roadworks gang has forgotten to clean up after themselves and left the 40kph sign when the team has long gone – confusing us mere mortals. And this is a big problem because as long as that sign is there we law-abiding citizens slow down and hold up all the tradie utes, which makes it frustrating for them, especially on a Friday.
But the real problem is now we have Teslas and a lot of other brands coming onboard with ‘full self-driving’ (supervised, of course) software. Now, I haven’t downloaded it to my car yet because I don’t think the roads are anywhere near up to scratch. However, I have been for a ride from central Melbourne to Port Melbourne and the tech is nothing short of miraculous. Taking on hook-turns, crossing four lanes of oncoming traffic with no arrow and intuitively negotiating traffic, people and bikes.
But it relies on GPS speed limits and that’s where things come undone. I drove around a couple of towns in our patch and noticed a few discrepancies between the signed speed limit and the GPS speed limit that my Tesla and that of a visitor would adhere to in full self-driving mode and even if you were in full manual mode looking at the number on the screen.
I did a bit of a drive around and spotted big differences between signed and GPS in the back roads around Creswick and other places around our shire, the standout was Daylesford CBD. In particular Vincent and Howe streets’ 40kph area. Howe Street from west to east delivers quite a few surprises and fluctuates from 40-50kph in some weird spots. The other direction goes pretty well until you get to the roundabout at the intersection of Vincent and Howe streets and then you take off doing 60kph, opposite the Coles driveway, where it is important to go slow.
I contacted a few lawyers to ask where one would stand in this predicament if you got busted in a 40-area doing 60 – in good faith that your car knew the limit. But no one returned my call, so I plugged the question into AI, and this is the answer.
“In Australia, speeding offences are generally strict liability offences. This means the prosecution doesn’t need to prove you intended to speed — only that you did. Simply put, ignorance or reliance on a faulty GPS is not a legal defence in most cases.”
I asked the Hepburn Shire Council for a bit more clarification and they came back with: “GPS companies are responsible for compiling and managing their own data which may come from a combination of government datasets, field mapping, and crowd-sourced updates. Discrepancies should be reported to the providers directly.”
But Google says: “Local Council: If the discrepancy is on a local, non-arterial road, contact your local council through their ‘Report a road issue’ portal.”
So, I checked and we do have such an animal at HSC. It’s under their ‘report an issue’ page, so either way it is up to the public to let the map folks know through government portals or via the map companies directly.
This is not too helpful when you have tried to follow the speed limit, got busted, done your arse by losing your licence, a pot full of cash and your job. And because you’ve been hanging around the house too long, like a bad smell, the missus walks out on you all because no one reported a discrepancy in the speed limits.
I have now reported the speed limit discrepancy and I’ll let you know how I go.
The world’s gone mad rant over…