Patent ID: 11945434
Assignee: BAIDU USA LLC
Field: Transport (Mechanical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 0:
1. A method of operating an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV), the method comprising:
in a first driving cycle, performing operations including:
determining an identification of an obstacle by analyzing sensor data captured by one or more sensors of the ADV using a neural network to implement computer vision;
determining a confidence score for the obstacle that represents a confidence level of how reliable the computer vision is in correctly identifying the obstacle with the computer vision, wherein the confidence score is determined at least based on a detection metric obtained from the neural network through an application programming interface (API) of the neural network, and wherein the identification of the obstacle is lower in response to an increase in a distance between the ADV and the obstacle, and wherein the confidence score is reduced in response to a line of sight between the one or more sensors and the obstacle being at least partially blocked;
generating a driving decision for the ADV based on a prediction of potential movement of the obstacle;
in response to determining that the confidence score representing the confidence level of how reliable the computer vision is in correctly identifying the obstacle is below a predetermined confidence threshold and a distance between the ADV and a potential point of contact with the obstacle is greater than a predetermined distance threshold, delaying executing the driving decision for a period of time; and
otherwise planning a path to drive the ADV based on the driving decision and providing a command to a vehicle control system which drives the ADV according to the path without delay; and
in a second driving cycle, repeating the operations performed in the first driving cycle, wherein in response to determining that a second confidence score representing the confidence level of how reliable the computer vision is in correctly identifying the obstacle during the second driving cycle is not below the predetermined confidence threshold, planning the path to drive the ADV based on the driving decision and providing the command to the vehicle control system which drives the ADV according to the path without additional delay.