US 10,884,410 B2 · Systems and methods for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode

Abstract

Systems, methods, and other embodiments for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode are disclosed. One embodiment detects that a vehicle traveling on a first roadway is approaching an intersection of the first roadway with a second roadway; detects, during one or more layer drives, one or more moving objects traveling on the second roadway; estimates the profile of each of one or more sensor obstructions situated in a non-roadway region abutting the intersection based on the detected one or more moving objects; combines, for each sensor obstruction, the profile estimates obtained from one or more layer drives to produce a composite estimate of the profile of that sensor obstruction; and determines, based at least in part on one or more composite profile estimates, whether navigating the intersection in an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle is achievable.

Claims20

Dependent claims

A system for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode, comprising:

one or more processors;
a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing:
an intersection detection module including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to detect, during each of one or more layer drives in which the vehicle is traveling on a first roadway, that the vehicle is approaching an intersection of the first roadway with a second roadway;
an intersection characterization module including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:
detect, during each of the one or more layer drives, one or more moving objects traveling on the second roadway;
produce, during each of the one or more layer drives, an estimate of a profile of each of one or more stationary sensor obstructions situated in a non-roadway region abutting the intersection based on the detected one or more moving objects;
combine, for each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, the estimates of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction obtained from the one or more layer drives to produce a composite estimate of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction;
and
determine, based at least in part on the composite estimate of the profile of each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, whether navigating the intersection in an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle is achievable.

6 more elements

A non-transitory computer-readable medium for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode and storing instructions that when executed by one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

detect, during each of one or more layer drives in which the vehicle is traveling on a first roadway, that the vehicle is approaching an intersection of the first roadway with a second roadway;
detect, during each of the one or more layer drives, one or more moving objects traveling on the second roadway;
produce, during each of the one or more layer drives, an estimate of a profile of each of one or more stationary sensor obstructions situated in a non-roadway region abutting the intersection based on the detected one or more moving objects;
combine, for each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, the estimates of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction obtained from the one or more layer drives to produce a composite estimate of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction;
and
determine, based at least in part on the composite estimate of the profile of each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, whether navigating the intersection in an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle is achievable.

3 more elements

A method of determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode, the method comprising:

detecting, during each of one or more layer drives in which the vehicle is traveling on a first roadway, that the vehicle is approaching an intersection of the first roadway with a second roadway;
detecting, during each of the one or more layer drives, one or more moving objects traveling on the second roadway;
producing, during each of the one or more layer drives, an estimate of a profile of each of one or more stationary sensor obstructions situated in a non-roadway region abutting the intersection based on the detected one or more moving objects;
combining, for each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, the estimates of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction obtained from the one or more layer drives to produce a composite estimate of the profile of that stationary sensor obstruction;
and
determining, based at least in part on the composite estimate of the profile of each of the one or more stationary sensor obstructions, whether navigating the intersection in an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle is achievable.

3 more elements

Dependencies are inferred from the claim text.

Systems and methods for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode

Life of this patent

Systems and methods for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode

Life of this patent

Abstract

Claims20