Augmented scene for autonomous vehicle testing

Abstract

The embodiments provide a method of augmenting environmental scenes and an autonomous vehicle testing system. The method includes: obtaining, from an autonomous vehicle, image data representing an image, which depicts an environment where the autonomous vehicle drives; generating virtual object graphics representing virtual object(s) that, when rendered over the image, result in an object-augmented image; generating global scene graphics based on the object-augmented image that, when rendered along with the object-augmented image, result in a visual representation as the environment would appear when experiencing predetermined weather conditions; generating detailed weather effect graphics representing detailed weather effect(s); generating a composite weather-object-augmented image based on the virtual object graphics, the global scene graphics, and the detailed weather effect graphics; and causing the composite weather-object-augmented image to be inputted into an onboard vehicle controller of the autonomous vehicle.