Waymo patents database of past traffic patterns to test self-driving cars
This patent describes a system that stores historical sensor data from real-world driving in a 3D grid to simulate how objects move. When testing self-driving software, the system uses this stored data to predict where a vehicle or pedestrian should go next based on past behavior at that specific location.
In the filing’s own words
Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for selecting actions for an agent at a specific real-world location using historical data generated at the same real-world location. One of the methods includes determining a current geolocation of an agent within an environment; obtaining historical data for geolocations in a vicinity of the current geolocation of the agent from a database that maintains historical data for a plurality of geolocations within the environment, the historical data for each geolocation comprising observations generated at least in part from sensor readings of the geolocation captured by vehicles navigating through the environment; generating an embedding of the obtained historical data; and providing the embedding as an input to a policy decision-making system that selects actions to be performed by the agent.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method performed by one or more computers, the method comprising: determining a current geolocation of an agent within an environment, wherein the current geolocation corresponds to a voxel of a voxel grid imposed on the environment, wherein the voxel represents a respective bounded three-dimensional region of the environment, wherein the agent is a simulated agent in a simulation of a real-world environment, and wherein the simulation of the real-world environment is for evaluating control software for an autonomous vehicle; obtaining historical data for the voxel corresponding to the current geolocation of the agent from a database that maintains historical data for a plurality of voxels of the voxel grid, the historical data for each voxel comprising a respective trajectory for each of one or more objects that were detected at the voxel by sensors of a vehicle navigating through the environment, wherein each trajectory comprises one or more voxels at which the respective object was detected; generating a future trajectory for the agent based at least in part on the historical data, comprising: identifying, from the historical data, a plurality of trajectories, each trajectory corresponding to a respective agent and including the current geolocation for the agent; identifying, from the historical data and for each of the plurality of identified trajectories, a respective observed next geolocation that follows the current geolocation in the identified trajectory, wherein the observed next geolocation corresponds to another voxel of the established voxel grid; selecting an observed next geolocation from the plurality of observed next geolocations as a next location in the future trajectory; and including, in the simulation, the simulated agent following the future trajectory.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Waymo LLC)
- Official title
- Spatio-temporal pose/object database
- Patent number
- US12741667B2
- Application number
- 18440363
- Filed
- Feb 13, 2024
- Granted
- Sep 22, 2026
- Inventors
- 2
- Claims
- 17
Classified under
B60W 60/001 Operations & transportB60W 30/0956 Operations & transportG05D 1/0088 Physics & computingG05D 1/0221 Physics & computingG06N 3/08 Physics & computingB60W 2554/4044 Operations & transportMore from Google in Cars & transport
- Waymo patents system to detect cyclists losing control before they fall Sep 8, 2026
- Waymo patents self-driving cars that hear sirens and pull over Sep 8, 2026
- Waymo patents AI that moves self-driving cars out of traffic jams Sep 29, 2026
- Waymo patents AI that predicts driving scenes from sensor data Oct 1, 2026
- Waymo patents method for self-driving cars to predict when they can see hidden hazards Sep 8, 2026
Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.