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GooglePatent applicationCars & transportInterest 6/10

Waymo patents using wheel angles to predict how other vehicles will turn

This patent describes a method for autonomous vehicles to predict where other road users are heading by analyzing their wheels. The system uses sensor data to locate the wheels of nearby objects and estimates their angle to forecast the object's next move.

Why it mattersThis improves how self-driving cars anticipate the actions of human drivers and cyclists, potentially making their driving smoother and safer.

In the filing’s own words

The technology relates to determining a future heading of an object. In order to do so, sensor data, including information identifying a bounding box representing an object in a vehicle's environment and locations of sensor data points corresponding to the object, may be received. Based on dimensions of the bounding box, an area corresponding to a wheel of the object may be identified. An orientation of the wheel may then be estimated based on the sensor data points having locations within the area. The estimation may then be used to determine a future heading of the object.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method comprising: receiving, by one or more processors of an autonomous vehicle, a representation of dimensions of a road user of a particular type in an environment of the autonomous vehicle; accessing, by the one or more processors, stored data including expected wheel locations of different types of road users; identifying, by the one or more processors from the stored data, based on the representation of dimensions, an area that is likely to correspond towhere a wheel of the particular type of the road user; predicting, by the one or more processors, a trajectory or heading of the road user based, in part, on the identified area; and controlling, by the one or more processors, the autonomous vehicle based on the predicted trajectory or heading of the road user.

Facts

Company
Google (Waymo LLC)
Official title
Using Wheel Orientation To Determine Future Heading
Publication number
US20260307683A1
Application number
19097944
Filed
Apr 2, 2025
Published
Oct 8, 2026
Inventors
1
Claims
21

Classified under

B60W 60/0027 Operations & transportB60W 50/0098 Operations & transportB60W 2050/0026 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4026 Operations & transportB60W 2554/4044 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.