Lane changing based on a lane change right-of-way cost

Abstract

Techniques for evaluating lane changing candidate trajectories are described herein. A vehicle may generate one or more candidate trajectories to follow within an environment. One or more of the candidate trajectories may be lane changing trajectories. As such, the vehicle may determine a lane changing cost associated with following the lane changing candidate trajectories to evaluate the degree to which the candidate trajectory respects the right-of-way of the object(s) located in the target lane. Accordingly, when generating the lane changing cost, the vehicle may determine that a relevant object is located within the target lane. Based on the object being longitudinally behind the vehicle, the vehicle may determine one or more sub-costs that may be combined into the lane changing cost. The vehicle may associate the lane change cost to the corresponding candidate trajectory and select (or determine) to follow the candidate trajectory based on the cost value.