Zoox, Inc.

Moritz Harmel

William Anthony Silva

Rick Zhang

Max Gier

Akash Arora

A vehicle computing system may implement techniques to control a vehicle to avoid collisions between the vehicle and an object in an environment in which a vehicle path and an object path merge. The techniques may include determining an initial merge location associated with the vehicle path and the object path and a final merge location. The final merge location may represent a location at which the vehicle is proximate to and ahead of the object. The vehicle computing system may determine whether the vehicle may proceed to the final merge location and merge with the object without the occurrence of a collision. The vehicle computing system may determine to maintain a vehicle trajectory or modify the vehicle to trajectory to yield to the object based on a determination of whether the vehicle may proceed without the occurrence of the collision.

Controlling merging vehicles

A vehicle computing system may implement techniques to determine an action for a vehicle to perform based on a cost associated therewith. The cost may be based on a detected object (e.g., another vehicle, bicyclist, pedestrian, etc.) operating in the environment and/or a possible object associated with an occluded region (e.g., a blocked area in which an object may be located). The vehicle computing system may determine two or more actions the vehicle could take with respect to the detected object and/or the occluded region and may generate a simulation associated with each action. The vehicle computing system may run the simulation associated with each action to determine a safety cost, a progress cost, a comfort cost, an operational rules cost, and/or an occlusion cost associated with each action. The vehicle computing system may select the action for the vehicle to perform based on an optimal cost being associated therewith.

Cost-based action determination

Junction queueing for vehicles is described, in which vehicles may be queued based on arrival time at a junction, position relative to a stopping location at the junction, and/or an amount of time waiting for other vehicles to proceed through the junction (timeout). In some examples, the queue may be first generated based on the arrival times of any other vehicle relative to a particular vehicle generating the queue. The queue may be updated based on arrival times of other vehicles (e.g., after the particular vehicle), whether another vehicle has proceeded out-of-turn (e.g., based on a position at the junction), and/or a timeout for vehicles that wait for others to yield at the junction. In some examples, hysteresis and alterations of the score for safety reasons may alter queue order. The queue may be used to control the particular vehicle to traverse the junction.

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San Francisco, CA, United States of America

Moritz Harmel