That patent only seems to cover using the same camera for both sign recognition and forward collision detection by switching between two different sets of image capture parameters and then dividing the frames captured between the two different algorithms. It's not a general patent on sign recognition. Tesla have enough cameras on their current cars, and camera technology has improved by enough over the years, that I can't imagine that being necessary.
> That patent only seems to cover using the same camera for both sign recognition
That is THE meat and potatoes of the patent. Sign recognition. i.e. speed limit signs. I'm not a patent lawyer so I will not pretend to know enough of the scope.
My Honda Civic has speed limit sign recognition. And it is possible to set cruise-control to limit the speed accordingly.
Or are we talking about something more complicated?
Your Honda Civic has it because they licensed the tech from MobileEye in 2014.
Tesla AP1 cars also have it, but when Tesla dropped MobileEye in favor of their own system, they can't use it anymore.
It's more of Tesla can't because because MobileEye owns the patent:
https://patents.google.com/patent/US20080137908A1/en