Object tracking across a wide range of distances for driving applications

A method comprising:

• providing, by a processing device, one or more camera images of an outside environment acquired at a first time, and positional data from a plurality of object tracks as input to a first set of one or more neural networks (NNs), each of the plurality of object tracks comprising positional data for a respective object of a plurality of objects in the outside environment of a vehicle;
• updating, by the processing device, the plurality of object tracks based on an output of the first set of one or more NNs;
• responsive to a distance from the vehicle to at least one object tracked by the plurality of object tracks being, at a second time, below a threshold distance, providing, by the processing device, one or more lidar images of the outside environment acquired at the second time, the one or more camera images of the outside environment acquired at the first time, and the positional data from the plurality of object tracks as input to a second set of one or more NNs;
• further updating the plurality of object tracks based on an output of the second set of one or more NNs;
• and
• causing, by the processing device, a driving path of a vehicle to be modified in view of the plurality of object tracks.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium, storing instructions thereon that, when executed by a processing device, cause the processing device to perform operations comprising:

• providing one or more camera images of an outside environment acquired at a first time, and positional data from a plurality of object tracks as input to a first set of one or more neural networks (NNs), each of the plurality of object tracks comprising positional data for a respective object of a plurality of objects in the outside environment of a vehicle;
• updating the plurality of object tracks based on an output of the first set of one or more NNs;
• responsive to a distance from the vehicle to at least one object tracked by the plurality of object tracks being, at a second time, below a threshold distance, providing one or more lidar images of the outside environment acquired at the second time, the one or more camera images of the outside environment acquired at the first time, and the positional data from the plurality of object tracks as input to a second set of one or more NNs;
• further updating the plurality of object tracks based on an output of the second set of one or more NNs;
• and
• causing, by the processing device, a driving path of a vehicle to be modified in view of the plurality of object tracks.