US 12,384,426 B1
Positional gaps for driver controllability
Jennifer Iglesias, San Francisco, CA (US); Diomidis Katzourakis, Mountain View, CA (US); Kerrie Wu, Fremont, CA (US); and Bruce Lin, Mountain View, CA (US)
Assigned to Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed by Waymo LLC, Mountain View, CA (US)
Filed on Nov. 13, 2023, as Appl. No. 18/507,415.
Application 18/507,415 is a continuation of application No. 17/865,535, filed on Jul. 15, 2022, granted, now 11,851,092.
Application 17/865,535 is a continuation of application No. 17/122,006, filed on Dec. 15, 2020, granted, now 11,427,226, issued on Aug. 30, 2022.
This patent is subject to a terminal disclaimer.
Int. Cl. B60W 60/00 (2020.01); B60W 50/16 (2020.01); B62D 15/02 (2006.01); B60W 50/14 (2020.01)
CPC B60W 60/0053 (2020.02) [B60W 50/16 (2013.01); B60W 60/001 (2020.02); B62D 15/021 (2013.01); B60W 2050/146 (2013.01)] 20 Claims
OG exemplary drawing
 
1. A method comprising:
identifying, by one or more processors, an uncertainty associated with behavior of an object in an environment external to a vehicle while the vehicle is operating in an autonomous driving mode;
estimating, by the one or more processors, a minimum positional gap permitted between the vehicle and the object in the external environment, based on the uncertainty associated with the behavior of the object and at least one of a cross-track error for a lateral position of the vehicle, an allowed actual gap distance to the object in the external environment, or a perception error; and
generating by the one or more processors, a signal regarding one or more driving operations based on the estimated minimum positional gap.