Patent ID: 11887378
Assignee: WAYMO LLC
Field: Audio-visual technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC G  B  H | IPC B  G  H

Claim 13:
14. A vehicle configured to operate in an autonomous driving mode, the vehicle comprising:
a driving system including:
a deceleration system configured to control braking of the vehicle;
an acceleration system configured to control acceleration of the vehicle;
a steering system configured to control wheel orientation and a direction of the vehicle;
an external sensing system including:
a lidar sensor arranged along an external sensing assembly, the lidar sensor having a lidar field of view configured to detect objects in a region of an external environment around the vehicle and within a threshold distance of the vehicle, the lidar field of view including an occlusion region within an immediate vicinity of the vehicle, the lidar field of view extending to at least the threshold distance of the vehicle; and
an image sensor positioned relative to the lidar sensor along the external sensing assembly to have an image field of view that is within the region of the external environment and within the threshold distance of the vehicle, the image field of view at least partly overlapping with the lidar field of view and encompassing at least a portion of the occlusion region of the lidar field of view; and

a control system operatively coupled to the driving system and the external sensing system, the control system including one or more processors configured to:
receive lidar data from the lidar sensor and captured imagery from the image sensor;
perform processing of at least one of the lidar data or the captured imagery to detect an object in the region within the threshold distance of the vehicle;
classify the detected object; and
cause at least one of the driving system or the external sensing system to perform an action based on classification of the detected object.