Front and side three-LIDAR design for autonomous driving vehicles

An autonomous driving vehicle, comprising:

• a vehicle frame housing the autonomous driving vehicle (ADV), wherein the autonomous driving vehicle is a bus;
• a first light detection and range (LIDAR) device mounted on a frontend of the vehicle frame;
• a second LIDAR device mounted on a left side of the vehicle frame;
• a third LIDAR device mounted on a right side of the vehicle frame, wherein the second LIDAR device is mounted near a corner of the frontend and the left side of the vehicle frame and the third LIDAR device is mounted near a corner of the frontend and the right side of the vehicle frame, wherein the first LIDAR device is configured to operate with a first horizontal field of view (FOV) of approximately 180 degrees towards forwardly, wherein the first LIDAR device is configured to operate with a vertical FOV of [−30, 10] degrees, wherein the second LIDAR device is configured to operate with a second horizontal FOV of approximately 200 to 220 degrees, and wherein the third LIDAR device is configured to operate with a third horizontal FOV of approximately 200 to 220 degrees;
• and
• an autonomous driving system coupled to the first, second, and third LIDAR devices, wherein the autonomous driving system comprises a perception module coupled to the first, second, and third LIDAR devices to perceive a driving environment surrounding the ADV based on LIDAR data received from the first, second, and third LIDAR devices, and wherein the autonomous driving system further comprises a planning module to plan a path to drive the ADV based on perception data representing the driving environment received from the perception module.