Orientation-Adjust Actions for Autonomous Vehicle Operational Management

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• a processor configured to execute instructions stored on a non-transitory computer readable medium to:
• operate a scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, wherein the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance includes an instance of a scenario-specific operational control evaluation model of a distinct vehicle operational scenario, and wherein operating the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance includes identifying a policy for the scenario-specific operational control evaluation model;
• receive a candidate vehicle control action from the policy for the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, wherein:
• in response to a determination that an uncertainty value for the distinct vehicle operational scenario exceeds a defined uncertainty threshold, the candidate vehicle control action is an orientation-adjust vehicle control action;
• and
• traverse a portion of a vehicle transportation network in accordance with the candidate vehicle control action, wherein the portion of the vehicle transportation network includes the distinct vehicle operational scenario.

A method for use in traversing a vehicle transportation network, the method comprising:

• traversing, by an autonomous vehicle, a vehicle transportation network, wherein traversing the vehicle transportation network includes:
• operating a scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, wherein the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance includes an instance of a scenario-specific operational control evaluation model of a distinct vehicle operational scenario, and wherein operating the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance includes identifying a policy for the scenario-specific operational control evaluation model;
• receiving a candidate vehicle control action from the policy for the scenario-specific operational control evaluation module instance, wherein:
• in response to a determination that an uncertainty value for the distinct vehicle operational scenario exceeds a defined uncertainty threshold, the candidate vehicle control action is an orientation-adjust vehicle control action;
• and
• traversing a portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the candidate vehicle control action, wherein the portion of the vehicle transportation network includes the distinct vehicle operational scenario, and wherein traversing the portion of the vehicle transportation network in accordance with the candidate vehicle control action includes:
• in response to a determination that a distance between the autonomous vehicle and a right-of-way boundary location is within an expected distance-to-stationary, controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse the vehicle transportation network by decelerating, and
• in response to a determination that a current location of the autonomous vehicle corresponds with the right-of-way boundary location, controlling the autonomous vehicle to traverse the vehicle transportation network by stopping.