Virtual vehicle for intersection edging and virtual stop lines

An apparatus, comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• generate at least one virtual road user, wherein a position of a respective virtual road user of the at least one virtual road user corresponds to a border of an unobstructed range of a sensor of a host vehicle approaching an intersection of a vehicle transportation network;
• determine a most relevant virtual road user of the at least one virtual road user, the most relevant virtual road user associated with an earliest crossing lane of the intersection from a perspective of the host vehicle;
• determine a time to contact for the most relevant virtual road user, wherein the time to contact is based on an acceleration of the host vehicle, a predicted trajectory of the most relevant virtual road user, and a relative distance between the host vehicle and the most relevant virtual road user;
• determine, based on the time to contact and the relative distance, a target speed for the host vehicle;
• and
• operate the host vehicle using the target speed as input to a control system of the host vehicle.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions operable to cause one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

• generating at least one virtual road user, wherein a position of a respective virtual road user of the at least one virtual road user corresponds to a border of an unobstructed range of a sensor of a host vehicle approaching an intersection of a vehicle transportation network;
• determining a most relevant virtual road user of the at least one virtual road user, the most relevant virtual road user associated with an earliest crossing lane of the intersection from a perspective of the host vehicle;
• determining a time to contact for the most relevant virtual road user, wherein the time to contact is based on an acceleration of the host vehicle, a predicted trajectory of the most relevant virtual road user, and a relative distance between the host vehicle and the most relevant virtual road user;
• determining, based on the time to contact and the relative distance, a target speed for the host vehicle;
• and
• operating the host vehicle using the target speed as input to a control system of the host vehicle.