Patent ID: 8885151

Claim:
A method comprising: receiving, from a laser, laser scan data collected while a vehicle is maneuvered along a roadway, the laser scan data including a plurality of data points, each data point of the plurality of data points including location, elevation, and intensity information; sectioning the plurality of data points into quanta, such that each quantum of the quanta is associated with a set of the plurality of data points, where each quantum of the quanta represents a period of time during which the laser completely sweeps through a field of view of the laser; for a particular one of the quanta, filtering the associated set of data points outside of a threshold quality area; dividing the threshold quality area into a two-dimensional grid of cells; projecting the filtered set of data points for the particular quanta onto the two-dimensional grid, such that each cell of the two-dimensional grid is associated with a subset of the filtered set of data points for the particular quanta; for each particular cell of the two-dimensional grid, evaluating, by a processor associated with the vehicle, the subset of the filtered set of data points for the particular quanta to determine a set of characteristics for the particular cell; and sending the sets of characteristics for all of the cells of the two-dimensional grid for the particular quantum to a central computing system.