Systems and Methods to Track Vehicles Proximate Perceived By an Autonomous Vehicle

A computer-implemented method for tracking vehicles that are perceived by an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising:

• obtaining, by one or more computing devices included in the autonomous vehicle, state data descriptive of a previous state of a tracked vehicle that is perceived by the autonomous vehicle, wherein the previous state of the tracked vehicle comprises at least one previous location of the tracked vehicle or a vehicle bounding shape associated with the tracked vehicle;
• predicting, by the one or more computing devices, one or more first locations for a first portion of the vehicle bounding shape based at least in part on the state data;
• obtaining, by the one or more computing devices, observation data descriptive of one or more sensor observations;
• determining, by the one or more computing devices, a second location of a second portion of an observation bounding shape associated with the tracked vehicle based at least in part on the observation data;
• and
• determining, by the one or more computing devices, at least one estimated current location of the first portion of the vehicle bounding shape associated with the tracked vehicle based at least in part on a comparison of the one or more first locations for the first portion of the vehicle bounding shape to the second location of the second portion of the observation bounding shape.

A computer system, comprising:

• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the computer system to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• predicting, by the one or more computing devices, one or more first shape locations for a vehicle bounding shape associated with a tracked vehicle that is perceived by an autonomous vehicle;
• identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a first dominant portion for each of the one or more first shape locations predicted for the vehicle bounding shape;
• obtaining, by the one or more computing devices, observation data descriptive of one or more sensor observations;
• determining, by the one or more computing devices, a second shape location for an observation bounding shape associated with the tracked vehicle based at least in part on the observation data;
• identifying, by the one or more computing devices, a second dominant portion for the observation bounding shape;
• and
• determining, by the one or more computing devices, at least one estimated shape location for the vehicle bounding shape based at least in part on a comparison of a first location of the first dominant portion for each of the one or more first shape locations to a second location of the second dominant portion for the observation bounding shape.

An autonomous vehicle, comprising:

• a tracking system configured to track vehicles perceived by the autonomous vehicle, wherein the tracking system comprises:
• a motion model configured to predict one or more first shape locations for a vehicle bounding shape associated with a tracked vehicle;
• and
• an observation model configured to provide a second shape location of an observation bounding shape associated with the tracked vehicle based at least in part on observation data derived from one or more sensors;
• one or more processors;
• and
• one or more non-transitory computer-readable media that collectively store instructions that, when executed by the one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform operations, the operations comprising:
• identifying a first dominant portion for each of the one or more first shape locations predicted for the vehicle bounding shape;
• identifying a second dominant portion for the observation bounding shape;
• performing, for each of the one or more first shape locations, a comparison of the first dominant portion to the second dominant portion;
• and
• determining at least one estimated current location of the first dominant portion for the vehicle bounding shape based at least in part on the comparison.