Avoiding blind spots of other vehicles

A system comprising one or more processors configured to:

• detect objects in a roadway based on the sensor data collected along the roadway by sensors of a vehicle driving in an autonomous driving mode;
• identify a particular object of the objects in the roadway that are located in a lane adjacent to a lane of the vehicle for blind spot detection;
• determine a blind spot area that defines a space in the lane of the vehicle that is adjacent to the particular object;
• predict future locations of the particular object;
• determine whether the predicted future locations indicate that the vehicle will drive into the determined blind spot area;
• when the predicted future locations indicate that the vehicle would will drive into the determined blind spot areas, determine a controlling factor for the blind spot area including a restriction on an amount of time spent by the vehicle in the determined blind spot area when the vehicle is in the determined blind spot area;
• and
• maneuver the vehicle based on the controlling factor.

A non-transitory computer-readable storage medium on which instructions are stored, the instructions, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to perform a method, the method comprising:

• detecting objects in a roadway based on the sensor data collected along the roadway by sensors of a vehicle driving in an autonomous driving mode;
• identifying, from the detected objects, a particular object of the objects in the roadway that are located in a lane adjacent to a lane of the vehicle for blind spot detection;
• determining a blind spot area that defines a space in the lane of the vehicle that is adjacent to the particular object;
• predicting future locations of the particular object;
• determining whether the predicted future locations indicate that the vehicle will drive into the determined blind spot area;
• when the predicted future locations indicate that the vehicle will drive into the determined blind spot area, determining a controlling factor for the blind spot area including a restriction on an amount of time spent by the vehicle in the determined blind spot when the vehicle is in the determined blind spot area;
• and
• maneuvering the vehicle based on the controlling factor.