A self-driving vehicle, SDV, comprising: a sensor system to dynamically detect a situational environment of the SDV; a communications system in communication with a transport facilitation system in order to enable the SDV to service pick-up requests; acceleration, braking, and steering systems and; a control system to execute instructions that cause the control system to: process sensor data from the sensor system to autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout a given region; receive a transport directive from the transport facilitation system to service a pick-up request from a requesting user, the transport directive indicating an inputted pick-up location by the requesting user; autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems along a current route to a pick-up area encompassing the inputted pick-up location; characterized in that the executed instructions further cause the control system to: determine a corresponding set of pick-up location options for the pick-up area; determine a ranking of respective pick-up location options in the set of pick-up location options; and as the SDV approaches the pick-up area, perform an operation to identify, via the sensor data, an optimal pick-up location option from the set of pick-up location options to rendezvous with the requesting user, the identifying of the optimal pick-up location option being based at least in part on a probability indicating whether a pick-up location option of the set of pick-up location options ranked higher than the optimal pick-up location option will be available to rendezvous with the requesting user. a sensor system to dynamically detect a situational environment of the SDV; a communications system in communication with a transport facilitation system in order to enable the SDV to service pick-up requests; acceleration, braking, and steering systems and; a control system to execute instructions that cause the control system to: process sensor data from the sensor system to autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout a given region; receive a transport directive from the transport facilitation system to service a pick-up request from a requesting user, the transport directive indicating an inputted pick-up location by the requesting user; autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems along a current route to a pick-up area encompassing the inputted pick-up location; characterized in that the executed instructions further cause the control system to: determine a corresponding set of pick-up location options for the pick-up area; determine a ranking of respective pick-up location options in the set of pick-up location options; and as the SDV approaches the pick-up area, perform an operation to identify, via the sensor data, an optimal pick-up location option from the set of pick-up location options to rendezvous with the requesting user, the identifying of the optimal pick-up location option being based at least in part on a probability indicating whether a pick-up location option of the set of pick-up location options ranked higher than the optimal pick-up location option will be available to rendezvous with the requesting user. process sensor data from the sensor system to autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems throughout a given region; receive a transport directive from the transport facilitation system to service a pick-up request from a requesting user, the transport directive indicating an inputted pick-up location by the requesting user; autonomously operate the acceleration, braking, and steering systems along a current route to a pick-up area encompassing the inputted pick-up location; characterized in that the executed instructions further cause the control system to: determine a corresponding set of pick-up location options for the pick-up area; determine a ranking of respective pick-up location options in the set of pick-up location options; and as the SDV approaches the pick-up area, perform an operation to identify, via the sensor data, an optimal pick-up location option from the set of pick-up location options to rendezvous with the requesting user, the identifying of the optimal pick-up location option being based at least in part on a probability indicating whether a pick-up location option of the set of pick-up location options ranked higher than the optimal pick-up location option will be available to rendezvous with the requesting user. determine a corresponding set of pick-up location options for the pick-up area; determine a ranking of respective pick-up location options in the set of pick-up location options; and as the SDV approaches the pick-up area, perform an operation to identify, via the sensor data, an optimal pick-up location option from the set of pick-up location options to rendezvous with the requesting user, the identifying of the optimal pick-up location option being based at least in part on a probability indicating whether a pick-up location option of the set of pick-up location options ranked higher than the optimal pick-up location option will be available to rendezvous with the requesting user.