Determining the pick-up/drop-off state of a mass transit vehicle

A system, comprising:

• a memory;
• and
• one or more processing devices, coupled to the memory, configured to perform operations comprising:
• determining, based on map data obtained from a mapping system of an autonomous vehicle (AV), a distance of a cable car from a passenger pick-up/drop-off (PUDO) zone, wherein the cable car is located in an environment of the AV, and
• determining, based at least on the distance, that the cable car is in a temporal vicinity of a PUDO state and that there is a lack of pedestrian activity involving boarding or disembarking from the cable car for a first threshold time interval, and modifying operation of the AV to at least partially circumnavigate the cable car.

A method comprising:

• identifying a mass transit vehicle in an environment of an autonomous vehicle (AV);
• responsive to determining the mass transit vehicle is in a pick-up/drop-off (PUDO) state and that there is a lack of pedestrian activity involving boarding or disembarking from the mass transit vehicle for a threshold time interval, providing movement instructions to a planning system of the AV to at least partially circumnavigate the mass transit vehicle;
• and
• modifying operation of the AV based on the movement instructions.