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GooglePatent applicationCars & transportInterest 6/10

Waymo patents system that reads traffic signs using camera and radar data

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

This filing describes a method for self-driving cars to identify traffic signs by combining data from cameras and radar sensors. It uses two separate neural networks to extract features from each sensor type, then merges this information to accurately classify signs like stop or yield signs.

Why it mattersThis improves how autonomous vehicles interpret road rules by relying on multiple sensor types, which can help maintain accuracy in conditions where cameras alone might struggle, such as heavy rain or glare.

In the filing’s own words

The disclosed systems and techniques facilitate efficient detection and classification of traffic signs in driving environments. The disclosed techniques include, obtaining, using a sensing system of a vehicle a first set of perspective camera images of an environment and a second set of radar images of the environment. The techniques further include generating, using a first neural network, one or more camera features characterizing the first set of images, generating, using a second neural network, one or more radar features characterizing the second set of images, and processing the one or more camera features and the one or more radar features to obtain an identification of one or more traffic signs in the environment.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A system comprising: a data processing system of a vehicle, the data processing system configured to: generate, for each of a plurality of times: a respective camera feature of a plurality of camera features, the respective camera feature characterizing one or more camera images of an environment associated with a respective time of the plurality of times, and a respective radar feature of a plurality of radar features, the respective radar feature characterizing one or more radar images of the environment associated with the respective time of the plurality of times; fuse the plurality of camera features with the plurality of radar features across the plurality of times to obtain a fused tensor; and process, using a neural network (NN), the fused tensor to obtain semantic content of one or more traffic signs in the environment; and a driving control system of the vehicle, configured to: control the vehicle based on the semantic content of the one or more traffic signs.

Facts

Company
Google (Waymo LLC)
Official title
DETECTION AND CLASSIFICATION OF TRAFFIC SIGNS USING CAMERA-RADAR FUSION
Publication number
US20260299088A1
Application number
19702707
Filed
Jun 9, 2026
Published
Oct 1, 2026
Inventors
4
Claims
20

Classified under

G01S 7/417 Physics & computingB60W 60/001 Operations & transportG01S 13/867 Physics & computingB60W 2420/403 Operations & transportB60W 2420/408 Operations & transportB60W 2555/60 Operations & transport
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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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.