A system method for detecting taillight signals of a vehicle using a convolutional neural network is disclosed. A particular embodiment includes: receiving a plurality of images from one or more image-generating devices; generating a frame for each of the plurality of images; generating a ground truth, wherein the ground truth includes a labeled image with one of the following taillight status conditions for a right or left taillight signal of the vehicle: (1) an invisible right or left taillight signal, (2) a visible but not illuminated right or left taillight signal, and (3) a visible and illuminated right or left taillight signal; creating a first dataset including the labeled images corresponding to the plurality of images, the labeled images including one or more of the taillight status conditions of the right or left taillight signal; and creating a second dataset including at least one pair of portions of the plurality of images, wherein the at least one pair of portions of the plurality of the images are in temporal succession.