A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous mode can obtain sensor data from one or more sensors observing one or more aspects of an environment of the vehicle. At least one aspect of the environment of the vehicle that is not observed by the one or more sensors could be inferred based on the sensor data. The vehicle could be controlled in the autonomous mode based on the at least one inferred aspect of the environment of the vehicle.

A system and method of planning a path for an autonomous vehicle from the vehicle's initial configuration to the goal configuration which is collision-free, kinematically-feasible, and near-minimal in length. The vehicle is equipped with a plurality of perception sensors such as lidar, camera, etc., and is configured to operate in an autonomous mode. An onboard computing device is configured to process the sensor data and provide a dynamic occupancy grid map of the surrounding environment in real-time. Based on the occupancy grid map, the path planner can quickly calculate a collision-free and dynamically feasible path towards the goal configuration for the vehicle to follow.

Various embodiments include a driver assistance system for determining the position of a stopping point of a vehicle at an infrastructure device comprising: a control unit; a communication device for receiving data from a server or from the infrastructure device; and a sensor arrangement for capturing vehicle data or environmental data. The control unit determines the location of the stopping point at the infrastructure device based at least in part on the data and the vehicle data or environmental data.

According to various embodiments, a method for operating a vehicle may include determining a vehicular area having traffic conditions or characteristics different from traffic conditions of a current or previous location of the vehicle; obtaining traffic and driving information for the determined vehicular region; changing or updating one or more of driving model parameters of a safety driving model during operation of the vehicle based on the obtained traffic and driving information; and controlling the vehicle to operate in accordance with the safety driving model using the one or more changed or updated driving model parameters. A vehicle may seamlessly update operational rules and/or handover of traffic and driving information for transitioning from one region to another.

A vehicle controller includes: a recognition unit that recognizes a surrounding state of a subject vehicle traveling in a road lane; an area specification unit that specifies a specific area in the lane in which the subject vehicle travels; and a driving control part that controls the subject vehicle with respect to a vehicle traveling ahead thereof, based on a result recognized b the recognition unit. The driving control part determines a condition of shifting from a first support status to a second support status such that there is a vehicle traveling ahead of the subject vehicle in the lane; and, if the subject vehicle enters the specific area at the first support status, the subject vehicle keeps the first support status, and if the subject vehicle enters the specific area at the second support status, shifts the support status from the second to the first support status.

There is provided a hybrid vehicle to suppress hunting (inversion) of a drive mode in a short time. The hybrid vehicle has an engine, a motor, a battery, an air conditioning system configured to condition air in a passenger compartment, and map information, and sets a drive route from the present location to the destination, and creates a drive support plan in which one of the drive modes including CD mode and CS mode is assigned to each drive section of the drive route to perform the drive support control. The drive support plan is created based on the battery remaining capacity taking into account the power consumption of the air conditioning system. When the predetermined condition that is based on the battery remaining capacity without taking into account the power consumption of the air conditioning system is satisfied while performing the drive support control, the driving state is continued.

A method for operating a vehicle hazardous parking warning system for warning a user of a first vehicle about hazardous parking of the first vehicle. The method includes detecting that the first vehicle enters a parking state at a parking position along the roadside; determining whether the parking position of the first vehicle is hazardous in terms of risk that the parked first vehicle being hit by a second, rear-coming, vehicle by retrieving stored forwards visibility information that was registered by a forwards directed sensor unit of the first vehicle while travelling of the first vehicle before entering the parking state; calculating a level of a risk parameter reflecting a risk for the parked first vehicle being hit by the second vehicle, based on the forwards visibility information; and determining that the parking position is a hazardous parking position when the risk parameter exceeds a threshold value.

Systems and method are provided for requesting remote control of an autonomous vehicle by a remote transportation system. In one embodiment, a method includes: receiving, by a processor of the autonomous vehicle, experience data associated with the autonomous vehicle, wherein the experience data includes a location of the autonomous vehicle, a time of day, a pose of the autonomous vehicle, detected freespace in an environment of the autonomous vehicle, detected congestion in the environment, a planned maneuver type, and an associated maneuver graph; determining, by the processor, one or more features of a planned maneuver based on the experience data; determining, by the processor, a risk value associated with the planned mission by processing the one or more features with a machine learning model; and selectively generating, by the processor, request data to the remote transportation system based on the risk value, wherein the request data includes the risk value.

A control device associated with an autonomous vehicle detects that an emergency personnel is altering traffic on a road using an emergency-related hand signal to divert the traffic from a road anomaly, such as a road accident. The control device determines an interpretation of the emergency-related hand signal. The control device determines a proposed trajectory for the autonomous vehicle according to the interpretation of the emergency-related hand signal. In certain embodiments, the control device may navigate the autonomous vehicle according to the interpretation of the emergency-related hand signal. In certain embodiments, the control device may transmit the proposed trajectory to an oversight server for confirmation. In certain embodiments, the oversight may confirm or override the proposed trajectory.

Systems and methods are provided for implementing variable energy regeneration cruise control, which involves dynamically increasing a limit of allowed energy regeneration in order to meet the deceleration need of the vehicle. The system and techniques leverage variable energy regeneration to allow for the additional energy resulting from deceleration to be stored (e.g., in a vehicle battery) for further use rather than being lost. Consequently, by ultimately providing additional stored energy, the disclosed variable energy regeneration cruise control system can realize advantages over conventional cruise control systems. A system can be programmed to dynamically adjust an amount of regenerative energy for decelerating a vehicle while a cruise control is activated. A regenerative braking system can decelerate the vehicle and store an amount of captured energy based on the amount of adjusted regenerative energy.