TECHNICAL FIELD

Embodiments of the present disclosure relate generally to operating autonomous vehicles. More particularly, embodiments of the disclosure relate to path planning for complex scenes by adjusting the path length for autonomous driving vehicles (ADVs).

BACKGROUND

Vehicles operating in an autonomous mode (e.g., driverless) can relieve occupants, especially the driver, from some driving-related responsibilities. When operating in an autonomous mode, the vehicle can navigate to various locations using onboard sensors, allowing the vehicle to travel with minimal human interaction or in some cases without any passengers.

Motion planning and control are critical operations in autonomous driving. Motion planning and control may include path planning and speed planning. Conventional path planning operations estimate the difficulty of completing a plurality of trajectories based on scenes of obstacles, traffic condition, road boundaries, etc., perceived by the vehicle to determine an optimized path trajectory that satisfies a set of path planning criteria for the vehicle. However, some complex scenes may prevent the vehicle from successfully determining the path trajectory or may cause the vehicle to select a path trajectory that is not optimized.

