Autonomous vehicle fleet acting as a phase array for imaging and tomography

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium having embodied thereon a program executable by a processor to implement a method for collecting sensor data, the method comprising:

• receiving data from computing devices at a plurality of autonomous vehicles (AVs);
• identifying locations for each respective AV of the plurality of AVs at discrete points in time;
• evaluating the data received from the computing devices;
• and
• generating a mapping of the received data, the mapping associated with the identified locations for each of the respective AVs at the discrete points in time.

A system for collecting sensor data, the system comprising:

• a plurality of autonomous vehicles (AVs) that collect sensor data and that include a respective computing device;
• and
• a computer that receives data associated with the sensor data from each of the respective computing devices of the plurality of AVs, wherein the computer:
• identifies locations for each respective AV of the plurality of AVs at discrete points in time;
• evaluates the data received from the respective computing devices;
• and
• generates a mapping of the received data, the mapping associated with the identified locations for each of the respective AVs at the discrete points in time.