Waymo LLC

Vaibhav Nangia

Benjamin T Ingram

David Harrison Silver

Jennifer Taylor

Angus Leigh

Jeremy Dittmer

Erik Christopher Chubb

Ruffin E Evans

Yonatan Winetraub

The technology relates to detecting and responding to emergency vehicles. This may include using a plurality of microphones to detect a siren noise corresponding to an emergency vehicle and to estimate a bearing of the emergency vehicle. This estimated bearing is compared to map information to identify a portion of roadway on which the emergency vehicle is traveling. In addition, information identifying a set of objects in the vehicle's environment as well as characteristics of those objects is received from a perception system is used to determine whether one of the set of objects corresponds to the emergency vehicle. How to respond to the emergency vehicle is determined based on the estimated bearing and identified road segments and the determination of whether one of the set of objects corresponds to the emergency vehicle. This determined response is then used to control the vehicle in an autonomous driving mode.

Detecting and responding to sirens

A method includes determining a target specification map that is associated with a task and that indicates, for each respective region of a plurality of regions around a vehicle equipped with a sensor, a target value of a parameter of the sensor. The method also includes determining a capability specification map that indicates, for each respective region, an attained value of the parameter that the sensor is configured to provide. The method additionally includes comparing the capability specification map to the target specification map to determine, for each respective region, a disparity between the target value and the attained value. The method further includes, based on the comparing, identifying one or more of: a first subset of the plurality of regions where the target value exceeds the attained value or a second subset of the plurality of regions where the attained value meets or exceeds the target value.

Software application for sensor analysis

Growing community of inventors

East Palo Alto, CA, United States of America

Vaibhav Nangia