Lane changes for autonomous vehicles involving traffic stacks at intersection

A system for controlling an autonomous vehicle, the system comprising one or more processors configured to:

• receive a signal indicating a predicted traffic stack for a lane in which the autonomous vehicle is currently traveling;
• in response to the received signal, adjust costs of edges of a roadgraph between the autonomous vehicle and a location of the predicted traffic stack in order to encourage the autonomous vehicle to change lanes in response to the predicted traffic stack;
• generate a route to a destination based on at least one of the adjusted costs;
• and
• provide the route to one or more second systems of the autonomous vehicle in order to control the autonomous vehicle according to the route.

An autonomous vehicle comprising:

• memory storing a roadgraph;
• and
• a planning system comprising one or more processors configured to:
• receive a signal indicating a predicted traffic stack for a lane in which the autonomous vehicle is currently traveling;
• in response to the received signal, adjust costs of edges of a roadgraph between the autonomous vehicle and a location of the predicted traffic stack in order to encourage the autonomous vehicle to change lanes in response to the predicted traffic stack;
• generate a route to a destination based on at least one of the adjusted costs;
• and
• provide the route to one or more second systems of the autonomous vehicle in order to control the autonomous vehicle according to the route.