There has been a problem that because in a section where a road forks from a main lane or merges the main lane, the number of lanes increases or decreases, breakage of a lane line and existence of other vehicles hinder the lane line from being read and hence generation of a target course becomes unstable. A course generation apparatus according to the present disclosure is provided with a prohibition-section determination unit that determines, in the case of forking from a main lane or merging with the main lane, that a present section is an environmental-information-course usage prohibition section, until a time when a vehicle position passes through a forking completion point or a merging completion point, and with a course selection unit that selects an environmental information course or a route-information course in a normal time and selects the route-information course in the environmental-information-course usage prohibition section.

This disclosure is generally directed to systems and methods for determining a passage status of a train through a railroad crossing. In an example method, a railroad crossing status detector system provided in a vehicle may determine that a train is approaching the railroad crossing. The determination is made by evaluating a first detection signal received from a first train detection apparatus located on one side of the railroad crossing. The railroad crossing status detector system may then evaluate a second detection signal received from a second train detection apparatus located on the other side of the railroad crossing and determine that the train has traveled past the railroad crossing. The system may also evaluate one or both detection signals to determine whether the train is currently located at the railroad crossing or is backing up after traveling at least partway across the railroad crossing.

System and methods for estimating a centerline of a road that separates traffic moving in opposite directions include aggregating a data set from each of a plurality of vehicles traversing the road over a period of time as telemetry data. Each data set of the telemetry data indicates a location and a heading. The method includes clustering the data sets of the telemetry data based on the heading indicated by each data set, and identifying a separator to separate the data sets indicating a first heading from the data sets indicating a second heading, opposite to the first heading. The centerline is estimated based on applying a spatial smoothing to the separator.

Systems and methods for general driving behavior of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. In one aspect, an autonomous vehicle includes a trailer, at least one perception sensor, a non-transitory computer readable medium, and a processor. The processor is configured to estimate a grade of the roadway based on the perception data, provide a first control input to the autonomous vehicle based on the grade of the roadway, determine a response of the autonomous vehicle to the first control input based on the perception data, estimate a trailer load of the trailer based on the response of the autonomous vehicle to the first control input, and provide a second control input to the autonomous vehicle based on the grade of the roadway and the trailer load.

A high precision digital map is pre-developed and stored in a memory of an in-vehicle control computer on an autonomous vehicle. The digital map is updated by the in-vehicle control computer with detected roadway data that is a fusion of roadway perception data from at least one perception sensor on the autonomous vehicle and real time GPS signal from at least one GPS receiving devices on the autonomous vehicle. The updated digital map is transferred to a remote oversight system via a network communication subsystem, and the oversight system distributes the updated digital map to other autonomous vehicles connected over the network communication subsystem.

Systems and methods for detecting physical infrastructure related to navigation of an autonomous vehicle are disclosed. In one aspect, the autonomous vehicle includes a perception sensor configured to generate perception data, a non-transitory computer readable medium, and a processor. The processor is configured to determine a minimal risk condition (MRC) maneuver for the autonomous vehicle to execute, identify a safe zone in which the autonomous vehicle is able to execute the MRC maneuver by coming to a stop based on the perception data, identify one or more exclusion zones within the safe zone based on the perception data, and control the autonomous vehicle to execute the MRC maneuver including stopping outside of the exclusion zone.

A vehicle is provided. The vehicle includes a plurality of sensors including a first sensor and a second sensor. The vehicle also includes a vehicle controller. The vehicle controller is programmed to (i) collect a first plurality of sensor information observed by the first sensor during operation of the vehicle; (ii) analyze the first plurality of sensor information to detect a gap along the vehicle's path of travel; (iii) compare one or more dimensions of the gap to one or more dimensions of the vehicle; (iv) receive a second plurality of sensor information from the second sensor; and (v) control the vehicle to travel through the gap based on the comparison of the one or more dimensions of the gap to the one or more dimensions of the vehicle and the second plurality of sensor information from the second sensor.

A system includes autonomous vehicle and an oversight server. The oversight server obtains road condition data associated with a road ahead of the autonomous vehicle. The oversight server obtains status data from the autonomous vehicle. The oversight server determines that a routing plan of the autonomous vehicle should be updated based on the road condition data and the status data in response to determining an unexpected anomaly in one or both of the road condition data and the status data. The unexpected anomaly includes one or more of a severe weather event, a traffic event, a road block, and a service that needed to be provided to the autonomous vehicle. The oversight server communicates the updated routing plan to the autonomous vehicle while the autonomous vehicle is autonomously driving along the road.

A system for securing the parking of an automobile vehicle parked on a parking area (Z), the vehicle including two steering wheels, and a actuator to modify the orientation of the steering wheels without the action of the driver, the system including a control unit (UC), a system for detecting a parked state of the automobile vehicle, a sensor for detecting the slope of the parking area, sensor for determining the orientation of the steering wheels with respect to the axis of the vehicle, the control unit (UC) being configured to determine the orientation of the steering wheels to put the vehicle in a decreased danger configuration in case of an unwanted movement of the vehicle, and to sending an instruction to the actuator to orientate the steering wheels according to the orientation determined by the control unit (UC).

An automated driving system controls an automated driving vehicle. A plurality of stop lots are virtually arranged in a pick-up and drop-off area in which the automated driving vehicle stops to pick up or drop off a user. An order of priority of the plurality of stop lots is set. The automated driving system selects a stop lot one by one in the order of priority and determines whether or not the selected stop lot is available for the automated driving vehicle to stop. When the selected stop lot is available for the automated driving vehicle to stop, the selected stop lot is set as a target stop lot. The automated driving system controls the automated driving vehicle so as to stop in the target stop lot.