Aspects of the disclosure provide for reducing inconvenience to other road users caused by stopped autonomous vehicles. As an example, a vehicle having an autonomous driving mode may be stopped at a first location. While the vehicle is stopped, sensor data is received from a perception system of the vehicle. The sensor data may identify a road user. Using the sensor data, a value indicative of a level of inconvenience to the road user caused by stopping the vehicle at the first location may be determined. The vehicle is controlled in the autonomous driving mode to cause the vehicle to move from the first location and in order to reduce the value.

Determining whether another entity is coordinating with an autonomous vehicle and/or to what extent the other entity's behavior is based on the autonomous vehicle may comprise determining a collaboration score and/or negotiation score based at least in part on sensor data. The collaboration score may indicate an extent to which the entity is collaborating with the autonomous vehicle to navigate (e.g., a likelihood that the entity is increasingly yielding the right of way to the autonomous vehicle based on the autonomous vehicle's actions). A negotiation score may indicate an extent to which behavior exhibited by the entity is based on actions of the autonomous vehicle (e.g., how well the autonomous vehicle and the entity are communicating with their actions).

A method for recognizing an object which is turning off includes detecting a vehicle in front by way of a surroundings sensor system of an ego vehicle; determining a probability of the vehicle in front turning off; and marking the vehicle in front as an object which is turning off when the probability of turning off is equal to or greater than a predetermined threshold value.

Enhancing situational awareness of an advanced driver assistance system in a host vehicle can be provided by acquiring, with an image sensor, an image data stream comprising a plurality of image frames. Analyzing A vision processor can analyze the image data stream to detect objects, shadows and/or lighting in the image frames. Recognizing A situation recognition engine can recognize at least one most probable traffic situation out of a set of predetermined traffic situations taking into account the detected objects, shadows and/or lighting. A processor can then control the host vehicle taking into account the at least one most probable traffic situation.

Aspects of the disclosure may enable autonomous vehicles to respond to emergency vehicles. For instance, sensor data identifying an emergency vehicle approaching the autonomous vehicle may be received. A predicted trajectory for the emergency vehicle may be received. Whether the autonomous vehicle is impeding the emergency vehicle may be determined based on the predicted trajectory and map information identifying a road on which the autonomous vehicle is currently traveling. Based on a determination that the autonomous vehicle is impeding the emergency vehicle, the autonomous vehicle may be controlled in an autonomous driving mode in order to respond to the emergency vehicle.

A vehicle includes a sensor provided to obtain first motion information which is motion state information of an object, a navigator provided to obtain location information of the vehicle, and a controller including at least one processor configured to process the location information and the first motion information, wherein the controller is configured to receive an expected motion value of the object based on the location information, compare the expected motion value with the first motion information to determine a difference value therebetween, and conclude the object as a dangerous object when the difference value is greater than or equal to a predetermined value.

A coordinated virtual scene for an autonomous vehicle is disclosed. A real route for an autonomous vehicle can be determined. This autonomous vehicle route can be employed to determine a virtualized route in a virtual environment. The autonomous and virtualized routes can be coordinated. A level of coordination can be selectable via one or more selectable congruence values. Generally, a greater congruence value can correspond to a greater coherence between the autonomous route and the virtualized route. A congruence value can be selectable, which can allow an occupant to indicate a level of coherence that is acceptable to an occupant. A virtual environment can be selectable to enable the virtualized routes to be more relevant to an autonomous vehicle occupant, passenger, operator, etc. Moreover, selection of a virtual environment can be predicated on a selection rule having been satisfied. Virtual environments can be non-fiction, fiction, or both.

The present invention relates to a method of cooperatively coordinating future driving maneuvers of a vehicle with fellow maneuvers of at least one fellow vehicle, wherein trajectories for the vehicle are rated with an effort value each, trajectories and fellow trajectories of the fellow vehicle are combined into tuples, the trajectory and the associated effort value of a collision-free tuple are selected as reference trajectory and reference effort value, trajectories with a lower effort value than the reference effort value are classified as demand trajectories, trajectories with higher effort value than the reference effort value are classified as alternative trajectories, and a data packet having a trajectory set consisting of the reference trajectory and the associated reference effort value as well as at least one trajectory from a group comprising the demand trajectories and the alternative trajectories as well as the respective effort values is transmitted to the fellow vehicle.

A method for operating a vehicle in an automatic driving operation not requiring any user action which can be deactivated by a deactivation action of a driver of the vehicle includes, during the automatic driving operation in a learning phase, driving situations in which the driver deactivates the automatic driving operation are recorded by a surroundings recording device and the recorded driving situations are stored in a memory as subjectively critical driving situations. The method further includes, during an operating phase of the automatic driving operation, comparing a currently recorded driving situation to the stored subjectively critical driving situations and emitting a warning to the driver when the currently recorded driving situation matches one of the stored subjectively critical driving situations within a tolerance range.

An autonomous vehicle uses machine learning based models to predict hidden context attributes associated with traffic entities. The system uses the hidden context to predict behavior of people near a vehicle in a way that more closely resembles how human drivers would judge the behavior. The system determines an activation threshold value for a braking system of the autonomous vehicle based on the hidden context. The system modifies a world model based on the hidden context predicted by the machine learning based model. The autonomous vehicle is safely navigated, such that the vehicle stays at least a threshold distance away from traffic entities.