Patent 11004000 was granted and assigned to Waymo on May, 2021 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
The technology relates to predicting that an object is going to enter into a trajectory of a vehicle. This may include receiving sensor data identifying a first location of the object in an environment of the vehicle at a first point in time and receiving sensor data identifying a second location of the object in the environment at a second point in time. In addition, a boundary of the trajectory is determined by defining at least a two-dimensional area through which the vehicle is expected to travel in the future. A first distance between the boundary and the first location and a second distance between the trajectory and the second location are determined. The first distance and the second distance are used to determine that the object is going to enter into the trajectory at a future point in time.