Systems and methods for lane end recognition

A vehicle, comprising:

• a body;
• at least one image capture device configured to acquire at least one image of an area forward of the vehicle, the area including at least one road sign providing information indicative of a lane ending;
• a data interface;
• and
• at least one processing device configured to:
• receive the at least one image via the data interface;
• extract lane ending information from a representation of the at least one road sign included in the at least one image;
• determine, based on at least one indicator of position of the vehicle, a distance from the vehicle to one or more lane constraints associated with the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling;
• determine, based on the extracted lane ending information and based on the determined distance from the vehicle to the one or more lane constraints, whether a current lane in which the vehicle is traveling is ending;
• cause the vehicle to change lanes to a new lane in which the vehicle is not already traveling based on the determination of whether the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling is ending;
• and
• update, based on the at least one indicator of position of the vehicle, the distance from the vehicle to one or more lane constraints associated with the new lane.

A method for detecting a lane ending for a vehicle, the method comprising:

• acquiring, via at least one image capture device, at least one image of an area forward of the vehicle, the area including at least one road sign providing information indicative of the lane ending;
• extracting lane ending information from a representation of the at least one road sign included in the at least one image;
• determining, based on at least one indicator of position of the vehicle, a distance from the vehicle to one or more lane constraints associated with the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling;
• determining, based on the extracted lane ending information and based on the determined distance from the vehicle to the one or more lane constraints, whether a current lane in which the vehicle is traveling is ending;
• causing the vehicle to change lanes to a new lane in which the vehicle is not already traveling based on the determination of whether the current lane in which the vehicle is traveling is ending;
• and
• updating, based on the at least one indicator of position of the vehicle, the distance from the vehicle to one or more lane constraints associated with the new lane.