Approach for estimating the geometry of roads and lanes by using vehicle trajectories

A vehicle comprising:

• a steering system;
• a braking system;
• and
• a processor coupled to the steering system and the braking system, the processor being configured to:
• track one or more vehicles to determine one or more observed trajectories of the tracked vehicles;
• obtain a representative trajectory based on at least one of the observed trajectories, the representative trajectory including a first location;
• produce a first generated trajectory based on a map database, the first generated trajectory including a second location;
• determine whether a characteristic of the representative trajectory satisfies a set of reliability criteria, the reliability criteria is based on an amount of observed trajectories, wherein greater reliability is indicated by a greater amount of observed trajectories;
• calculate a third location based on:
• (i) at least one of the first location and the second location, and
• (ii) the extent to which the representative trajectory satisfies the reliability criteria;
• include the third location in a second generated trajectory;
• and
• operate at least one of the braking system and the steering system based on the second generated trajectory to change at least one of a speed of the vehicle and a direction of the vehicle.

A system comprising one or more processors configured to:

• identify a first road vehicle and a second road vehicle, that are traveling on the same road as a third road vehicle;
• track the first road vehicle to determine a first observed trajectory thereof, the first observed trajectory including a first location;
• track the second road vehicle to determine a second observed trajectory thereof, the second observed trajectory including a second location;
• calculate a third location using a mathematical formula based on the first location and the second location, the third location being different from both the first location and the second location;
• include the third location in a generated trajectory;
• and
• change at least one of a speed of the third road vehicle and a direction of the third road vehicle based on the generated trajectory.

An apparatus comprising:

• a processor configured to:
• track one or more vehicles that are travelling on the same road as a first vehicle;
• determine a representative trajectory based on the one or more tracked vehicles;
• determine a generated trajectory based on information from a map in a map database, the map including an indication of a geometry of the road;
• identify a first portion of the representative trajectory and a second portion of the generated trajectory;
• compare the first portion of the representative trajectory to the second portion of the generated trajectory to obtain a measure of discrepancy between the representative trajectory and the generated trajectory, the discrepancy is based on a distance between the representative trajectory and the generated trajectory, wherein greater discrepancy is indicated by a greater distance;
• determine whether the distance of the discrepancy satisfies a threshold distance;
• and
• if the threshold distance is satisfied, update the map in the map database based on the obtained measure of discrepancy, the updating including modifying the indication of the geometry of the road.