Traffic light viewsheds

A system comprising:

• one or more computers and one or more storage devices storing instructions that are operable, when executed by the one or more computers, to cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:
• obtaining, by an on-board computer system of vehicle, viewshed data comprising a plurality of viewsheds for a plurality of respective traffic lights, each viewshed being generated from sensor detections of traffic lights by one or more vehicles, wherein each viewshed defines a three-dimensional volume for a respective traffic light;
• receiving an indication of a candidate driving plan based on input from a traffic light detection of a particular traffic light, wherein the particular traffic light is associated with a particular viewshed of the plurality of viewsheds;
• obtaining a current pose of the vehicle representing a location of the vehicle;
• computing a sensor position of a sensor relative to the pose of the vehicle;
• and
• generating, by the on-board computer system of the vehicle, a modified driving plan that causes the vehicle to move such that the sensor position enters the three-dimensional volume defined by the particular viewshed for the particular traffic light;
• and
• executing the modified driving plan and continuing to execute the modified driving plan while the sensor position of the vehicle is within the three-dimensional volume defined by the particular viewshed for the particular traffic light.

One or more non-transitory computer storage media encoded with computer program instructions that when executed by one or more computers cause the one or more computers to perform operations comprising:

• obtaining, by an on-board computer system of vehicle, viewshed data comprising a plurality of viewsheds for a plurality of respective traffic lights, each viewshed being generated from sensor detections of traffic lights by one or more vehicles, wherein each viewshed defines a three-dimensional volume for a respective traffic light;
• receiving an indication of a candidate driving plan based on input from a traffic light detection of a particular traffic light, wherein the particular traffic light is associated with a particular viewshed of the plurality of viewsheds;
• obtaining a current pose of the vehicle representing a location of the vehicle;
• computing a sensor position of a sensor relative to the pose of the vehicle;
• and
• generating, by the on-board computer system of the vehicle, a modified driving plan that causes the vehicle to move such that the sensor position enters the three-dimensional volume defined by the particular viewshed for the particular traffic light;
• and
• executing the modified driving plan and continuing to execute the modified driving plan while the sensor position of the vehicle is within the three-dimensional volume defined by the particular viewshed for the particular traffic light.