Behaviors that reduce demand on autonomous follower vehicles

A system for operating a plurality of vehicles in a platoon, the vehicles including a leader and a follower, the system comprising one or more processors, memory, and one or more programs stored in the memory for execution by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the system to:

• at the follower,
• detect a series of positions of the leader along a path (p1, p2, . . . , pn);
• control its own longitudinal positions so as to arrive at the same longitudinal positions along the path as the leader;
• detect one or more attributes of a travel lane;
• and
• control its own lateral position within that lane, wherein controlling its own lateral position within the lane comprises:
• in accordance with a first condition, using the detected lane attributes to determine an offset within the lane;
• and
• in accordance with a second condition, mimicking a lateral position of the leader within the lane.

A method of operating a plurality of vehicles in a platoon, the vehicles including a first leader, a follower, and a second leader, the method comprising:

• while the first leader is travelling along a first path:
• autonomously following, by the follower, the first leader's path via sensor-based positional tracking of the first leader,
• transitioning, by the follower, to following the second leader instead of the first leader, by the further steps of:
• while the second leader is travelling within range of one or more of the follower's sensors,
• testing, by the follower, for a precondition, and
• when the precondition is satisfied, stopping, following, by the follower, the first path of the first leader, and following, by the follower, a second path of the second leader path autonomously via sensor-based positional tracking of the second leader, such that the follower is never alone in a travel lane without having either the first leader or the second leader to track;
• and
• detecting that the first leader moves away from the follower.