US 11,987,237 B2
Systems and methods to determine a lane change strategy at a merge region
Pablo Abad, San Francisco, CA (US); Karan Rajen Parikh, Bellevue, WA (US); Ross Anderson, San Francisco, CA (US); and Khawaja Waqee Khalid, San Jose, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Dec. 20, 2021, as Appl. No. 17/645,231.
Prior Publication US 2023/0192074 A1, Jun. 22, 2023
Int. Cl. B60W 30/09 (2012.01); B60W 30/18 (2012.01); B60W 60/00 (2020.01); G05B 13/02 (2006.01)
CPC B60W 30/09 (2013.01) [B60W 30/18163 (2013.01); B60W 60/001 (2020.02); B60W 60/0053 (2020.02); G05B 13/0265 (2013.01); B60W 2520/06 (2013.01); B60W 2520/10 (2013.01); B60W 2520/105 (2013.01); B60W 2530/201 (2020.02); B60W 2552/05 (2020.02); B60W 2552/10 (2020.02); B60W 2552/15 (2020.02); B60W 2552/20 (2020.02); B60W 2554/20 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4041 (2020.02); B60W 2554/4042 (2020.02); B60W 2555/20 (2020.02)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A computer-implemented method, comprising:
determining, by a computing device and based on map data, an approaching merge region comprising an on-ramp merging with a road, wherein the road comprises one or more lanes, and wherein a truck is traveling on an initial lane of the one or more lanes according to a navigation plan, wherein the navigation plan is based on cost allocations associated with the one or more lanes;
receiving, by the computing device, an indication of movement of a vehicle on the on-ramp, wherein the indication of movement is based on data collected by one or more sensors configured to capture sensor data from an environment surrounding the truck;
identifying, by the computing device, in response to the approaching merge region and the indication of movement of the vehicle on the on-ramp, one or more candidate lanes of the one or more lanes, wherein the truck can navigate from the initial lane to the one or more candidate lanes;
determining, by the computing device and for the on-ramp and the one or more lanes, respective avoidance scores indicative of a likelihood of an interaction between the truck and the vehicle based on the approaching merge region;
updating, by the computing device, the navigation plan based on the respective avoidance scores, wherein updating the navigation plan based on the respective avoidance scores comprises updating respective cost allocations for each of the initial lane and the one or more candidate lanes based on the respective avoidance scores; and
controlling, by the computing device, the truck to execute a driving strategy based on the updated navigation plan.