A method of detecting a way-side object includes receiving data frames from sensors mounted on a vehicle. Position data corresponding to the position of the vehicle is received. Object-of-interest data is retrieved from a database. The sensor data frames and the object-of-interest data are processed to determine a region-of-interest in the sensor data frame. A portion of the sensor data frames corresponding to the region of interest is processed using machine-learned object detection to identify a first object-of-interest. The portion of the sensor data frames corresponding to the region of interest is processed using computer vision methods to detect features of the expected object-of-interest and identifying the detected object-of-interest as explained when the features of the expected object-of-interest are detected. Explained object-of-interest data corresponding to the explained detected object-of-interest is output to a navigation system of the vehicle.