Patent ID: 11938939
Assignee: AURORA OPERATIONS, INC.
Field: Computer technology (Electrical engineering)
Classification: CPC B  G | IPC B  G

Claim 18:
19. A traffic light system of an autonomous vehicle, the traffic light system comprising:
at least one processor; and
at least one memory comprising instructions that, when executed, cause the at least one processor to:
process an image using a machine learning classifier, wherein the image is captured by a vision component of the autonomous vehicle, and wherein the image is processed using the machine learning classifier based on the image capturing a region that is predicted to include a traffic light;
generate, based on processing the image, a corresponding numerical measure for each of multiple candidate states of the traffic light;
generate, based on processing each of the corresponding numerical measures, a corresponding final measure for each of the candidate states;
select one of the candidate states as a current state of the traffic light, wherein the selecting is based on the corresponding final measures;
compare the selected current state of the traffic light to one or more historical states of the traffic light, wherein one or more of the historical states of the traffic light are associated with a threshold age relative to the image being captured, and wherein the threshold age is ten seconds or less relative to the image being captured;
identify, based on the comparing, a transition of the traffic light from a first state associated with one or more of the historical states to a second state associated with the current state; and
control the autonomous vehicle based on the selected current state of the traffic light and the identified transition of the traffic light.