US Patent 10029682 Surrounding vehicle classification and path prediction

A host vehicle can be configured to monitor an external environment of the host vehicle using a sensor system. The host vehicle can detect an object in the external environment of the host vehicle. The object can be classified as a surrounding vehicle. The host vehicle can determine a driving behavior of the surrounding vehicle. The driving behavior can be based on any one of a predetermined vehicle characteristics and current driving characteristics of the surrounding vehicle. The predetermined vehicle characteristics can be based on a type of the surrounding vehicle. The current driving characteristics can be based on observations obtained by the sensor system. The host vehicle can predict a trajectory of the surrounding vehicle based on the determined driving behavior. The host vehicle can follow a safe path based on the predicted trajectory responsive to detecting one or more sensors in a failed state.