Patent 11468773 was granted and assigned to Zoox on October, 2022 by the United States Patent and Trademark Office.
Techniques described herein are directed to classifying lanes in an environment of a vehicle for, for example, performing lane handling. In an example, system(s) of a vehicle can determine a signal indicative of a presence of the vehicle in a lane of a drivable surface in an environment within which the vehicle is located. The system(s) can determine, based at least in part on the signal, a classification of the lane as at least one of occupied (an object is at least partially in the lane), unoccupied (no object in the lane), and/or established (e.g., where an object has established a priority in the lane). The system(s) can control the vehicle based at least in part on the classification of the lane to improve safety in scenarios, for example, including merging.