1. A method for road and obstacle detection in navigating an autonomous vehicle, the method comprising: scanning a distance ahead of the autonomous vehicle along only one axis to obtain a current range scan, wherein the one axis is substantially perpendicular to a direction of travel of the autonomous vehicle; obtaining navigation data, including dynamics, position, and orientation measurements of the autonomous vehicle, during the scanning of the distance ahead; transforming the current range scan to world coordinates with respect to a reference location based on the navigation data; inputting the transformed current range scan into a distance-based accumulator; adding the transformed current range scan to a variable size buffer when the autonomous vehicle is deemed to be non-stationary; estimating a ground plane from the transformed current range scan and prior range scans stored in the variable size buffer; representing the estimated ground plane as a constrained quadratic surface; and classifying the constrained quadratic surface into one or more of a traversable area, a non-traversable area, or an obstacle area for navigation of the autonomous vehicle.