/Patent Tracker
GooglePatent applicationAI & softwareInterest 6/10

Waymo patents method for predicting traffic paths using diffusion models

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

This filing describes a system that uses a type of artificial intelligence called a diffusion model to predict where cars, cyclists, and pedestrians will move next. It works by taking a snapshot of the current traffic scene, converting it into a digital format, and then using the model to repeatedly refine a guess about future paths until it produces a likely outcome.

Why it mattersThis is interesting because it shows how self-driving companies are using advanced AI techniques to better anticipate the unpredictable movements of other road users.

In the filing’s own words

Methods, systems, and apparatus, including computer programs encoded on computer storage media, for generating trajectory predictions for one or more target agents, e.g., a vehicle, a cyclist, or a pedestrian, in an environment. In one aspect, one of the methods include: obtaining scene context data characterizing a scene at a current time point in an environment that includes multiple target agents; generating, from the scene context data, an encoded representation of the scene in the environment; and generating, by a diffusion model based on the encoded representation, a respective trajectory prediction output that predicts a respective future trajectory for each of the multiple target agents after the current time point.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A computer-implemented method comprising: obtaining scene context data characterizing a scene at a current time point in an environment; generating, from the scene context data, an encoded representation of the scene in the environment; and generating, by using a diffusion model and based on the encoded representation, a trajectory prediction output that predicts a future trajectory for a target agent after the current time point by repeatedly updating an intermediate representation of the trajectory prediction output across multiple steps in a generation process.

Facts

Company
Google (Waymo LLC)
Official title
TRAJECTORY PREDICTION USING DIFFUSION MODELS
Publication number
US20260296504A1
Application number
19689937
Filed
May 27, 2026
Published
Oct 1, 2026
Inventors
6
Claims
20

Classified under

B60W 60/00276 Operations & transportB60W 50/0097 Operations & transportB60W 50/06 Operations & transportB60W 2552/20 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4044 Operations & transportB60W 2556/10 Operations & transport
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

More from Google in AI & software

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.