Autonomous Vehicle Operation with Explicit Occlusion Reasoning

An apparatus for use in traversing a vehicle transportation network, the apparatus comprising:

• a non-transitory computer readable medium;
• and
• a processor configured to execute instructions stored on the non-transitory computer readable medium to:
• receive, from a sensor of a vehicle, sensor data for a portion of a vehicle operational environment while the vehicle is traversing the vehicle transportation network;
• determine, using the sensor data of the vehicle, a visibility grid comprising coordinates forming an unobserved region within a defined distance from the vehicle while the vehicle is traversing the vehicle transportation network;
• compute a probability of a presence of an external object within the unobserved region by comparing the visibility grid to a map;
• and
• traverse a portion of the vehicle transportation network using the probability.