Self-recognition of autonomous vehicles in mirrored or reflective surfaces

摘要

A controller (102, Fig.1) for an autonomous vehicle 300 receives an image stream from one or more imaging devices (e.g. camera 120, Fig.1) and identifies vehicle images 304a in the image stream (402, Fig.4). The vehicle images are compared to the color, shape, badging, markings, license plate and driver of the autonomous vehicle and if they match with certainty exceeding a threshold then the vehicle image is ignored as a potential obstacle (404-418, Fig.4). The color and shape of a vehicle in a vehicle image may be evaluated first and only if there is a match are other factors such as badging, markings, license plate, and driver considered. The location of a reflective surface 302 that generated the vehicle image may be determined and added to a set of potential obstacles along with vehicle images not matching the autonomous vehicle. Steering, accelerator or brake (122, Fig.1) may be actuated to avoid collision. The autonomous vehicles own reflection is thus not falsely identified as a collision hazard.