Detecting and responding to parking behaviors in autonomous vehicles

A system for identifying and responding to vehicles engaged in a parallel parking maneuver, the system comprising one or more processors configured to:

• receive over a period of time, sensor data corresponding to objects in a first vehicle's environment, the sensor data including location information for the objects over time, and the first vehicle having an autonomous driving mode where the one or more processors maintain a default distance between the first vehicle and other vehicles in a same lane;
• identify from the sensor data an object corresponding to a second vehicle in a lane in front of the first vehicle;
• track the second vehicle over the period of time in order to identify a number of different actions performed by the second vehicle from the sensor data;
• determine that the second vehicle is engaged in a parallel parking maneuver by comparing the number of different actions to a threshold value;
• and
• when the second vehicle is determined to be engaged in a parallel parking maneuver, control the first vehicle in the autonomous driving mode by maintaining a second distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle that is greater than the default distance.

A non-transitory, computer readable medium on which instructions are stored, the instructions when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method for identifying and responding to vehicles engaged in a parallel parking maneuver, the method comprising:

• receiving over a period of time, sensor data corresponding to objects in a first vehicle's environment, the sensor data including location information for the objects over time, and the first vehicle having an autonomous driving mode where the one or more processors maintain a default distance between the first vehicle and other vehicles in a same lane;
• identifying from the sensor data an object corresponding to a second vehicle in a lane in front of the first vehicle;
• tracking the second vehicle over the period of time in order to identify a number of different actions performed by the second vehicle from the sensor data;
• determining that the second vehicle is engaged in a parallel parking maneuver by comparing the number of different actions to a threshold value;
• and
• when the second vehicle is determined to be engaged in a parallel parking maneuver, controlling the first vehicle in the autonomous driving mode by maintaining a second distance between the first vehicle and the second vehicle that is greater than the default distance.