An autonomous vehicle and a drunk driving responding method, includes an autonomous driving control apparatus including a processor that is configured to determine whether the vehicle is in an emergency situation when the alcohol is detected in the vehicle, and to move the vehicle to an operational design domain when the processor concludes that the vehicle is in the emergency situation, and a communication device that is configured to notify a government office or a rescue organization of the emergency situation.

An approach is provided for determining an autonomous vehicle reaction strategy when facing a wrong way driving vehicle. The approach, for example, involves processing mapping data, sensor data, or a combination thereof to develop a map of an area within a threshold distance of an autonomous vehicle in response to a detection of an oncoming vehicle that is driving in a wrong direction towards the autonomous vehicle. The approach also involves using a decision tree of a plurality of candidate strategies for avoiding the oncoming vehicle to select a strategy based on one or more attributes of the map. The approach further involves presenting the selected strategy in a user interface of the autonomous vehicle.

Using a read sensor to sense wrong-way driving. A method may include sensing, by a rear sensor of a vehicle, an environment of the vehicle to provide rear sensed information; processing the rear sensed information to provide at least one rear-sensed vehicle progress direction indications; generating or receiving at least one front-sensed vehicle progress direction indications; wherein the at least one front-sensed vehicle progress direction indications is generated by processing front-sensed information acquired during right-way progress; comparing at least one rear-sensed vehicle progress direction indications to the at least one front-sensed vehicle progress direction indications to determine whether the vehicle is wrong-way driving; and responding to the finding of the wrong-way driving.

Techniques are described for determining visibility conditions of an environment in which an autonomous vehicle is operated and performing driving related operations based on the visibility conditions. An example method of adjusting driving related operations of a vehicle includes determining, by a computer located in an autonomous vehicle, a visibility related condition of an environment in which the autonomous vehicle is operating, adjusting, based at least on the visibility related condition, a set of one or more values of one or more variables associated with a driving related operation of the autonomous vehicle, and causing the autonomous vehicle to be driven to a destination by causing the driving related operation of one or more devices located in the autonomous vehicle based on at least the set of one or more values.

Systems and methods for a moveable cover panel of an autonomous vehicle is provided. A vehicle can include a front panel disposed proximate to the front end of the passenger compartment, a vehicle motion control device located at the front panel, and a cover panel located at the front panel. The cover panel moveable relative to the front panel between an isolating position and an exposing position. The cover panel can isolate the vehicle motion control device from the passenger compartment when in the isolating position and expose the vehicle motion control device to the passenger compartment when in the exposing position. A method can include obtaining vehicle data identifying an operational mode, state, and/or status of the vehicle, determining a first position of the cover panel, and initiating a positional change for the cover panel based on the vehicle data and the first position.

Autonomous control of a subject vehicle including a longitudinal motion control system includes determining states of parameters associated with a trajectory for the subject vehicle and parameters associated with a control reference determined for the subject vehicle. A range control routine is executed to determine a first parameter associated with a range control command based upon the states of the plurality of parameters, and a speed control routine is executed to determine a second parameter associated with a speed control command based upon the states of the plurality of parameters. An arbitration routine is executed to evaluate the range control command and the speed control command, and operation of the subject vehicle is controlled to achieve a desired longitudinal state, wherein the desired longitudinal state is associated with a minimum of the range control command and the speed control command.

A driver-assistance method for a motor vehicle of interest, in which the vehicle of interest detects the third-party vehicles which are present at an initial instant in its environment is disclosed. During a first prediction cycle, an order of priority is assigned to the third-party vehicles which are detected at the initial instant and to the vehicle of interest, corresponding to an order in which the vehicles in the set follow one another in the travel zone starting from a vehicle detected in a position which is furthest ahead of the vehicle of interest. For each selected vehicle in the set, taken in the order of priority, another vehicle in the set is identified which is able to be a primary target vehicle for this selected vehicle. A manoeuvre which is in progress for the selected vehicle is estimated on the basis at least of the identified primary target vehicle.

An autonomous navigation system may autonomously navigate a vehicle through an environment in which one or more non-solid objects, including gaseous and/or liquid objects, are located. Sensors, including sensors which can detect chemical substances in a region of the environment, may detect non-solid objects independently of an opacity of the objects. Non-solid objects may be determined to present an obstacle or interference based on determined chemical composition, size, position, velocity, concentration, etc. of the objects. The vehicle may be autonomously navigated to avoid non-solid objects based on positions, trajectories, etc. of the non-solid objects. The vehicle may be navigated according to avoidance driving parameters to avoid non-solid objects, and a navigation system may characterize a non-solid object as a solid object having dimensions and position which encompasses the non-solid object, so that the vehicle is navigated in avoidance of non-solid objects as if the non-solid objects were solid.

The present disclosure relates to a driving control apparatus, a driving control method, and a program that can resolve a conflict between a deliberate action and a reflex action during determination of a next action in autonomous driving.

During autonomous driving, a reflex action is determined as a simplified action on the basis of detection results detected by a variety of sensors provided in a vehicle, and a deliberate action ranked higher than a reflex action is determined through elaborate processing. A plurality of resolution modes are made available to deal with a possible conflict between the reflex action and the deliberate action, and by which of the resolution modes the conflict is resolved is specified in advance so that the conflict is resolved by the specified resolution mode. The present disclosure is applicable to motor vehicles that drive autonomously.

Systems and methods are directed to motion planning for an autonomous vehicle. In one example, a computer-implemented method for road surface dependent motion planning includes obtaining, by a computing system comprising one or more computing devices, surface friction data. The method further includes determining, by the computing system, one or more constraints for motion planning based at least in part on the surface friction data. The method further includes generating, by the computing system, a motion plan for an autonomous vehicle based at least in part on the one or more constraints.