Crossing Blind Intersections from a Full Stop Using Estimated Visibility of Approaching Vehicles

Due to the complexity of the environment and occlusions which often present in the scene, autonomous driving in an urban area is a challenging task. In some critical locations, e.g., intersections with low visibility, occlusions need to be taken into account as failing to do so might lead to a severe accident. In this paper, a method for crossing blind intersections with a mandatory stop using the estimated visibility of possible approaching vehicles is proposed. Speed profiles generated by the proposed method were compared with those of an expert driver. The results showed that the proposed method could produce a similar driving characteristic of an expert driver at low-visibility intersections with a mandatory stop.