Systems and methods for controlling longitudinal acceleration based on lateral objects

A system, comprising:

• a processor;
• a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium comprising programming instructions that are configured to cause the processor to implement a method for controlling acceleration of a vehicle, wherein the programming instructions comprise instructions to:
• detect a lateral distance from a point on a trajectory of the vehicle to an object the vehicle is expected to pass when following the trajectory, the object being located off of and to a side of the trajectory and the point representing a future location of the vehicle while passing the object;
• compare the lateral distance to a threshold value;
• select whether acceleration limiting is to be performed by the vehicle based on whether the lateral distance is less than the threshold value;
• and
• cause the vehicle to perform operations for autonomous driving with or without acceleration limiting based on the selecting.

A non-transitory computer-readable medium that stores instructions that is configured to, when executed by at least one computing device, cause the at least one computing device to perform operations comprising:

• detecting a lateral distance from a point on a trajectory of the vehicle to an object the vehicle is expected to pass when following the trajectory, the object being located off of and to a side of the trajectory and the point representing a future location of the vehicle while passing the object;
• comparing the lateral distance to a threshold value;
• selecting whether acceleration limiting is to be performed by the vehicle based on whether the lateral distance is less than the threshold value;
• and
• causing the vehicle to perform operations for autonomous driving with or without acceleration limiting based on the selecting.