Detecting road anomalies

A method of operating a fully autonomous vehicle (AV), comprising:

• receiving information from a plurality of sensors coupled to the AV, the information corresponding to variations of a navigable surface on which the AV is traveling, wherein at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors is positioned on an undercarriage of the AV and is in physical contact with the navigable surface;
• and
• augmenting a driving capability of the AV based on the information, including:
• determining that the navigable surface has a level of traction that does not satisfy a threshold;
• and
• in response to the determination, adjusting a speed of the AV.

A system, comprising:

• a fully autonomous vehicle (AV);
• a plurality of sensors coupled to the AV, wherein at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors is positioned on an undercarriage of the AV and in physical contact with a navigable surface on which the AV is traveling, and wherein the plurality of sensors are configured to:
• detect variations of the navigable surface on which the AV is traveling;
• and
• generate information corresponding to the variations of the navigable surface;
• and
• a first device with one or more processors and memory, the first device configured to:
• receive the information corresponding to the variations of the navigable surface;
• augment a driving capability of the AV based on the information, including:
• determining that the navigable surface has a level of traction that does not satisfy a threshold;
• and
• in response to the determination, adjusting a speed of the AV.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium encoding instructions operable to cause a data processing apparatus to:

• receive information from a plurality of sensors coupled to an autonomous vehicle (AV), the information corresponding to variations of a navigable surface on which the AV is traveling, wherein at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors is positioned on an undercarriage of the AV and is in physical contact with the navigable surface;
• and
• augment a driving capability of the AV based on the information, including:
• determining that the navigable surface has a level of traction that does not satisfy a threshold;
• and
• in response to the determination, adjusting a speed of the AV.