Waymo patents method to auto-label static objects in self-driving car data
This filing describes a way to save time when labeling data for self-driving cars. If a car sees a parked object like a tree or building, the system can automatically apply the same label to that object in later data, since it hasn't moved.
In the filing’s own words
Aspects of the disclosure provide for automatically generating labels for sensor data. For instance, first sensor data for a vehicle may be identified. This first sensor data may have been captured by a first sensor of the vehicle at a first location during a first point in time and may be associated with a first label for an object. Second sensor data for the vehicle may be identified. The second sensor data may have been captured by a second sensor of the vehicle at a second location at a second point in time outside of the first point in time. The second location is different from the first location. A determination may be made as to whether the object is a static object. Based on the determination that the object is a static object, the first label may be used to automatically generate a second label for the second sensor data.
What exactly they claim (claim 1)
1. A method comprising: detecting, at a first point in time, an object from a location using a first sensor of a vehicle; detecting, at a second point in time, the object from a different location using a second sensor of the vehicle; determining, by one or more processors, that the object has not moved between the first point in time and the second point in time; and in response to determining that the object has not moved, automatically generating, by the one or more processors based on a label for the object associated with the first point in time, another label for the object for the second point in time.
Facts
- Company
- Google (Waymo LLC)
- Official title
- AUTOMATIC LABELING OF OBJECTS IN SENSOR DATA
- Publication number
- US20260320334A1
- Application number
- 19673676
- Filed
- May 11, 2026
- Published
- Oct 15, 2026
- Inventors
- 8
- Claims
- 20
Classified under
G06K 19/067 Physics & computingG09F 3/0291 Physics & computingMore from Google in AI & software
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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.