Automobile traffic flow control under intelligent infrastructure deficiency

Abstract

Techniques for traffic flow control are disclosed. In one aspect, an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow determines that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof, and reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed the intersection.

Description

Technical Field

[0001] Aspects of the present disclosure generally relate to wireless communication. Background Art

[0002] Wireless communication systems have evolved through many generations, including first-generation analog wireless telephone service (1G), second-generation (2G) digital wireless telephone service (including transitional 2.5G and 2.75G networks), third-generation (3G) high-speed data, Internet-capable wireless services, and fourth-generation (4G) services (e.g., Long Term Evolution (LTE) or WiMax). Currently, many different types of wireless communication systems are in use, including cellular systems and Personal Communication Service (PCS) systems. Examples of known cellular systems include the cellular analog Advanced Mobile Phone System (AMPS), and digital cellular systems based on Code Division Multiple Access (CDMA), Frequency Division Multiple Access (FDMA), Time Division Multiple Access (TDMA), Global System for Mobile Communications (GSM), etc.

[0003] The fifth-generation (5G) wireless standard, known as New Radio (NR), enables higher data transfer speeds, a greater number of connections, better coverage, and other improvements. According to the Next Generation Mobile Networks Alliance, the 5G standard is designed to provide higher data rates, more accurate positioning (e.g., based on reference signals for positioning (RS-P), such as downlink, uplink, or sidelink positioning reference signals (PRS)), and other technical enhancements compared to previous standards.

[0004] Furthermore, leveraging the increased data rate and reduced latency of 5G, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication technologies are being implemented to support autonomous driving applications, such as wireless communication between vehicles, between vehicles and roadside infrastructure, between vehicles and pedestrians, and so on. Summary of the Invention

[0005] A simplified summary of one or more aspects related to the present disclosure is presented below. Accordingly, the following summary is neither intended to be an exhaustive overview of all contemplated aspects nor to identify key or decisive elements of all contemplated aspects or to delineate the scope associated with any particular aspect. Thus, the sole purpose of the following summary is to present in simplified form certain concepts related to one or more aspects involving the mechanisms disclosed herein prior to the detailed description presented below.

[0006] In one aspect, a method of traffic flow control performed by an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the method comprising: determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0007] In one aspect, an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0008] In one aspect, an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: means for determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and means for reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0009] In one aspect, a non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, cause the OBC to: determine that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0010] Other objects and advantages associated with the various aspects disclosed herein will be apparent to those skilled in the art based on the drawings and detailed description. BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

[0011] The accompanying drawings are presented to aid in describing various aspects of the present disclosure and are provided solely for illustration and not limitation of the aspects.

[0012] Figure 1 An example wireless communication system in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated.

[0013] Figure 2A and Figure 2B Example wireless network structures according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated.

[0014] Figure 3 is a top view of a vehicle employing an integrated radar camera sensor behind a windshield according to various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0015] Figure 4 An example user equipment (UE) architecture is illustrated in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure.

[0016] Figure 5 is a diagram illustrating an example intersection with primary traffic flow and secondary traffic flow in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure.

[0017] Figure 6 Example methods of traffic flow control according to aspects of the present disclosure are illustrated. DETAILED DESCRIPTION

[0018] Various aspects of the present disclosure are provided in the following description and related drawings for various examples provided for illustrative purposes. Alternative aspects may be designed without departing from the scope of the present disclosure. In addition, well-known elements of the present disclosure will not be described in detail or will be omitted to avoid making the relevant details of the present disclosure difficult to understand.

[0019] The words "exemplary" and / or "example" are used herein to mean "serving as an example, instance, or illustration." Any aspect described herein as "exemplary" and / or "example" is not necessarily to be construed as preferred or advantageous over other aspects. Likewise, the term "aspects of the disclosure" does not require that all aspects of the disclosure include the discussed feature, advantage, or mode of operation.

[0020] Those skilled in the art should understand that any one of a variety of different technologies and methods can be used to represent the information and signals described below. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be mentioned throughout the following description can be represented by voltages, currents, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof, depending in part on the specific application, in part on the desired design, in part on the corresponding technology, and so on.

[0021] In addition, many aspects are described in terms of a sequence of actions to be performed by, for example, elements of a computing device. It will be recognized that the various actions described herein can be performed by specific circuitry (e.g., an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC)), by program instructions executed by one or more processors, or by a combination of both. Additionally, the sequence of actions described herein can be regarded as being fully embodied within any form of non-transitory computer-readable storage medium storing a corresponding set of computer instructions that, when executed, will cause or command the associated processor of the device to perform the functionality described herein. Thus, the various aspects of the present disclosure can be embodied in many different forms, all of which have been contemplated within the scope of the claimed subject matter. Additionally, for each of the aspects described herein, the corresponding form of any such aspect can be described herein as, for example, "logic configured to perform the described actions".

[0022] As used herein, the terms "user equipment" (UE), "vehicle-mounted UE" (V-UE), "pedestrian UE" (P-UE), and "base station" are not intended to be dedicated to or otherwise limited to any particular radio access technology (RAT) unless otherwise specified. In general, a UE can be any wireless communication device that a user uses to communicate through a wireless communication network (e.g., an on-vehicle computer, a vehicle navigation device, a mobile phone, a router, a tablet computer, a laptop computer, an asset location device, a wearable device (e.g., a smartwatch, glasses, an augmented reality (AR) / virtual reality (VR) headset, etc.), a vehicle (e.g., a car, a motorcycle, a bicycle, etc.), an Internet of Things (IoT) device, etc.). A UE can be mobile or can be stationary (e.g., at certain times) and can communicate with a radio access network (RAN). As used herein, the term "UE" can be interchangeably referred to as "mobile device", "access terminal" or "AT", "client device", "wireless device", "subscriber device", "subscriber terminal", "subscriber station", "user terminal" or "UT", "mobile terminal", "mobile station", or variants thereof.

[0023] A V-UE is a type of UE and can be any vehicle-mounted wireless communication device, such as a navigation system, an alarm system, a head-up display (HUD), an on-board computer, an in-vehicle infotainment system, an autonomous driving system (ADS), an advanced driver assistance system (ADAS), etc. Alternatively, the V-UE can be a portable wireless communication device (e.g., a cellular phone, a tablet computer, etc.) carried by the driver of the vehicle or an occupant in the vehicle. The term "V-UE" can refer to the vehicle-mounted wireless communication device or the vehicle itself, depending on the context. A P-UE is a type of UE and can be a portable wireless communication device carried by a pedestrian (i.e., a user who is not driving or riding in a vehicle). Generally, a UE can communicate with the core network via the RAN, and through the core network, the UE can connect to an external network such as the Internet and to other UEs. Of course, for a UE, other mechanisms for connecting to the core network and / or the Internet are possible, such as via a wired access network, a wireless local area network (WLAN) network (e.g., based on Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) 802.11, etc.).

[0024] A base station can operate according to one of several RATs according to the network in which the base station is deployed to communicate with a UE, and alternatively can be referred to as an access point (AP), a network node, a Node B, an evolved Node B (eNB), a next-generation eNB (ng-eNB), a new radio (NR) Node B (also referred to as a gNB or gNodeB), etc. The base station can mainly be used to support the wireless access of a UE, including supporting the data, voice, and / or signaling connections of the supported UE. In some systems, the base station can only provide edge node signaling functions, while in other systems, the base station can provide additional control and / or network management functions. The communication link by which a UE can transmit signals to the base station is referred to as an uplink (UL) channel (e.g., a reverse traffic channel, a reverse control channel, an access channel, etc.). The communication link by which the base station can transmit signals to the UE is referred to as a downlink (DL) or a forward link channel (e.g., a paging channel, a control channel, a broadcast channel, a forward traffic channel, etc.). As used herein, the term traffic channel (TCH) can refer to the UL / reverse or DL / forward traffic channel.

[0025] The term "base station" can refer to a single physical transmit receive point (TRP) or multiple physical TRPs that may or may not be co-located. For example, in the case where the term "base station" refers to a single physical TRP, the physical TRP can be the antenna of the base station corresponding to the cell (or several cell sectors) of the base station. In the case where the term "base station" refers to multiple co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs can be an antenna array of the base station (e.g., as in a multiple input multiple output (MIMO) system or in the case where the base station employs beamforming). In the case where the term "base station" refers to multiple non-co-located physical TRPs, the physical TRPs can be a distributed antenna system (DAS) (a network of spatially separated antennas connected to a common source via a transmission medium) or a remote radio head (RRH) (a remote base station connected to a serving base station). Alternatively, the non-co-located physical TRPs can be the serving base station that receives measurement reports from the UE and an adjacent base station whose reference radio frequency (RF) signal the UE is measuring. Since, as used herein, a TRP is the point by which a base station transmits and receives wireless signals, a reference to transmission from or reception at a base station should be understood to refer to a particular TRP of the base station.

[0026] In some specific implementations that support UE positioning, a base station may not support wireless access of the UE (e.g., may not support data, voice, and / or signaling connections of the UE), but instead, may send a reference RF signal to the UE for measurement by the UE, and / or may receive and measure signals sent by the UE. Such a base station can be referred to as a positioning beacon (e.g., in the case of sending an RF signal to the UE) and / or as a positioning measurement unit (e.g., in the case of receiving and measuring an RF signal from the UE).

[0027] An "RF signal" includes an electromagnetic wave of a given frequency that transmits information through the space between a transmitter and a receiver. As used herein, a transmitter can send a single "RF signal" or multiple "RF signals" to a receiver. However, due to the propagation characteristics of an RF signal through a multipath channel, a receiver can receive multiple "RF signals" corresponding to each transmitted RF signal. The same transmitted RF signal on different paths between the transmitter and the receiver can be referred to as a "multipath" RF signal. As used herein, when it is clear from the context that the term "signal" refers to a wireless signal or an RF signal, the RF signal can also be referred to as a "wireless signal" or simply as a "signal".

[0028] Figure 1An example wireless communication system 100 in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. The wireless communication system 100 (which may also be referred to as a wireless wide area network (WWAN)) may include various base stations 102 (labeled "BS") and various UEs 104. The base stations 102 may include macro cell base stations (high-power cellular base stations) and / or small cell base stations (low-power cellular base stations). In one aspect, the macro cell base stations 102 may include eNBs and / or ng-eNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an LTE network) or gNBs (where the wireless communication system 100 corresponds to an NR network) or a combination of both, and the small cell base stations may include femto cells, pico cells, micro cells, etc.

[0029] The base stations 102 may together form a RAN and interface with a core network 170 (e.g., an evolved packet core (EPC) or a 5G core (5GC)) via a backhaul link 122 and interface with one or more location servers 172 (e.g., a location management function (LMF) or a secure user plane location (SUPL) positioning platform (SLP)) via the core network 170. The location server 172 may be part of the core network 170 or may be external to the core network 170. The location server 172 may be integrated with the base stations 102. The UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 directly or indirectly. For example, the UE 104 may communicate with the location server 172 via the base station 102 currently serving the UE 104. The UE 104 may also communicate with the location server 172 via another path, such as via an application server (not shown), via another network, such as via a wireless local area network (WLAN) access point (AP) (e.g., the AP 150 described below), etc. For signaling purposes, the communication between the UE 104 and the location server 172 may be represented as an indirect connection (e.g., via the core network 170, etc.) or a direct connection (e.g., as shown via a direct connection 128), where intermediate nodes (if any) are omitted from the signaling diagram for clarity.

[0030] In addition to other functions, the base stations 102 may perform functions related to one or more of the following: transferring user data, radio channel encryption and decryption, integrity protection, header compression, mobility control functions (e.g., handover, dual connectivity), inter-cell interference coordination, connection establishment and release, load balancing, distribution of non-access stratum (NAS) messages, NAS node selection, synchronization, RAN sharing, multimedia broadcast multicast service (MBMS), subscriber and equipment tracking, RAN information management (RIM), paging, positioning, and delivery of warning messages. The base stations 102 may communicate with each other directly or indirectly (e.g., via the EPC / 5GC) on a backhaul link 134, which may be wired or wireless.

[0031] The base station 102 can communicate wirelessly with the UE 104. Each base station in the base station 102 can provide communication coverage for a corresponding geographical coverage area 110. In one aspect, one or more cells can be supported by the base station 102 in each geographical coverage area 110. A "cell" is a logical communication entity used to communicate with a base station (e.g., via a certain frequency resource, which is called a carrier frequency, component carrier, carrier, frequency band, etc.), and can be associated with an identifier (e.g., physical cell identifier (PCI), enhanced cell identifier (ECI), virtual cell identifier (VCI), cell global identifier (CGI), etc.) used to distinguish cells operating via the same or different carrier frequencies. In some cases, different cells can be configured according to different protocol types (e.g., machine type communication (MTC), narrowband IoT (NB-IoT), enhanced mobile broadband (eMBB), or other protocol types) that can provide access for different types of UEs. Since a cell is supported by a specific base station, depending on the context, the term "cell" can refer to either or both of the logical communication entity and the base station that supports it. In some cases, the term "cell" can also refer to the geographical coverage area (e.g., sector) of a base station, as long as the carrier frequency can be detected and used for communication within a certain part of the geographical coverage area 110.

[0032] Although the geographical coverage areas 110 of adjacent macro cell base stations 102 can partially overlap (e.g., in a handover area), some areas in the geographical coverage area 110 can substantially overlap with a larger geographical coverage area 110. For example, a small cell base station 102' (marked as "SC" for "small cell") can have a geographical coverage area 110' that substantially overlaps with the geographical coverage area 110 of one or more macro cell base stations 102. A network including both small cell base stations and macro cell base stations can be referred to as a heterogeneous network. The heterogeneous network can also include a home eNB (HeNB), which can provide services to a restricted group called a closed subscriber group (CSG).

[0033] The communication link 120 between the base station 102 and the UE 104 can include an uplink (also called a reverse link) transmission from the UE 104 to the base station 102 and / or a downlink (DL) (also called a forward link) transmission from the base station 102 to the UE 104. The communication link 120 can use MIMO antenna technology, including spatial multiplexing, beamforming, and / or transmit diversity. The communication link 120 can be through one or more carrier frequencies. The allocation of carriers can be asymmetric for the downlink and the uplink (e.g., more or fewer carriers can be allocated to the downlink compared to the uplink).

[0034] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a WLAN access point (AP) 150 that communicates with a wireless local area network (WLAN) station (STA) 152 via a communication link 154 in an unlicensed spectrum (e.g., 5 GHz). When communicating in an unlicensed spectrum, the WLAN STA 152 and / or the WLAN AP 150 may perform a clear channel assessment (CCA) or listen-before-talk (LBT) procedure before communication to determine whether the channel is available.

[0035] The small cell base station 102' may operate in licensed and / or unlicensed spectrum. When operating in an unlicensed spectrum, the small cell base station 102' may employ LTE or NR technologies and use the same 5 GHz unlicensed spectrum used by the WLAN AP 150. The small cell base station 102' adopting LTE / 5G in an unlicensed spectrum may enhance the coverage of the access network and / or increase the capacity of the access network. NR in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as NR-U. LTE in an unlicensed spectrum may be referred to as LTE-U, licensed-assisted access (LAA), or MulteFire.

[0036] The wireless communication system 100 may also include a mmW base station 180 that may operate in millimeter wave (mmW) frequencies and / or near mmW frequencies to communicate with a UE 182. The extremely high frequency (EHF) is a part of the RF in the electromagnetic spectrum. The EHF has a range of 30 GHz to 300 GHz and a wavelength between 1 millimeter and 10 millimeters. The radio waves in this frequency band may be referred to as millimeter waves. Near mmW may extend down to a frequency of 3 GHz with a wavelength of 100 millimeters. The super high frequency (SHF) band extends between 3 GHz and 30 GHz, which is also referred to as centimeter waves. Communication using the mmW / near mmW radio frequency band has high path loss and a relatively short distance. The mmW base station 180 and the UE 182 may utilize beamforming (transmission and / or reception) on a mmW communication link 184 to compensate for the extremely high path loss and short distance. In addition, it should be understood that in an alternative configuration, one or more base stations 102 may also use mmW or near mmW and beamforming for transmission. Therefore, it should be understood that the foregoing illustrations are merely examples and should not be construed as limiting the various aspects disclosed herein.

[0037] Transmit beamforming is a technique for focusing RF signals in a specific direction. Traditionally, when a network node (e.g., a base station) broadcasts an RF signal, it broadcasts the signal omnidirectionally, i.e., in all directions. With transmit beamforming, the network node determines where a given target device (e.g., a UE) is located (relative to the transmitting network node) and projects a stronger downlink RF signal in that specific direction, thus providing a faster and stronger RF signal (in terms of data rate) to the receiving device. To change the directivity of the RF signal during transmission, the network node can control the phase and relative amplitude of the RF signal at each of one or more transmitters that broadcast the RF signal. For example, the network node can use an array of antennas (referred to as a "phased array" or "antenna array") that forms an RF beam that can be "manipulated" to point in different directions without actually moving the antennas. Specifically, the RF currents from the transmitters are fed to the individual antennas with the correct phase relationships such that the radio waves from the individual antennas add up in the desired direction to increase radiation while canceling in the undesired directions to suppress radiation.

[0038] Transmit beams can be quasi-co-located, which means that they appear to have the same parameters to the receiver (e.g., a UE), regardless of whether the transmit antennas of the network node are physically co-located. In NR, there are four types of quasi-co-location (QCL) relationships. Specifically, a given type of QCL relationship means that certain parameters of a second reference RF signal on a second beam can be derived based on information about a source reference RF signal on a source beam. Thus, if the source reference RF signal is of QCL type A, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift, Doppler spread, average delay, and delay spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is of QCL type B, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and Doppler spread of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is of QCL type C, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the Doppler shift and average delay of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel. If the source reference RF signal is of QCL type D, the receiver can use the source reference RF signal to estimate the spatial reception parameters of a second reference RF signal transmitted on the same channel.

[0039] In receive beamforming, the receiver uses receive beams to amplify RF signals detected on a given channel. For example, the receiver can increase the gain setting of the antenna array in a specific direction and / or adjust the phase setting of the antenna array in a specific direction to amplify the RF signal received from that direction (e.g., increase its gain level). Thus, when the receiver is said to perform beamforming in a certain direction, this means that the beam gain in that direction is high relative to the beam gains in other directions, or the beam gain in that direction is the highest compared to the beam gains of all other receive beams available to the receiver in that direction. This results in a stronger received signal strength for the RF signal received from that direction (e.g., reference signal received power (RSRP), reference signal received quality (RSRQ), signal-to-interference-plus-noise ratio (SINR), etc.).

[0040] Transmit beams and receive beams can be spatially related. Spatial relationship means that the parameters of a second beam (e.g., transmit beam or receive beam) for a second reference signal can be derived based on the information of a first beam (e.g., receive beam or transmit beam) for a first reference signal. For example, a UE can use a specific receive beam to receive a reference downlink reference signal (e.g., synchronization signal block (SSB)) from a base station. Then, the UE can form a transmit beam for transmitting an uplink reference signal (e.g., sounding reference signal (SRS)) to that base station based on the parameters of the receive beam.

[0041] Note that depending on the entity forming the "downlink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming a downlink beam to send a reference signal to a UE, the downlink beam is a transmit beam. However, if the UE is forming a downlink beam, the downlink beam is a receive beam for receiving the downlink reference signal. Similarly, depending on the entity forming the "uplink" beam, the beam can be a transmit beam or a receive beam. For example, if the base station is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink receive beam, and if the UE is forming an uplink beam, the uplink beam is an uplink transmit beam.

[0042] The electromagnetic spectrum is typically subdivided into various categories, bands, channels, etc. based on frequency / wavelength. In 5G NR, two initial operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR1 (410 MHz – 7.125 GHz) and FR2 (24.25 GHz – 52.6 GHz). It should be understood that although a portion of FR1 is greater than 6 GHz, in various documents and articles, FR1 is typically (interchangeably) referred to as the “sub-6 GHz” band. Regarding FR2, a similar naming issue sometimes occurs, which is typically (interchangeably) referred to as the “millimeter wave” band in documents and articles, although it is different from the extremely high frequency (EHF) band (30 GHz – 300 GHz) identified by the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) as the “millimeter wave” band.

[0043] The frequencies between FR1 and FR2 are generally referred to as mid-band frequencies. Recent 5G NR research has identified operating bands for these mid-band frequencies as frequency range designations FR3 (7.125 GHz – 24.25 GHz). The bands falling within FR3 can inherit FR1 characteristics and / or FR2 characteristics, and thus can effectively extend the features of FR1 and / or FR2 to mid-band frequencies. In addition, higher bands are currently being explored to extend 5G NR operation beyond 52.6 GHz. For example, three higher operating bands have been identified as frequency range designations FR4a or FR4-1 (52.6 GHz to 71 GHz), FR4 (52.6 GHz to 114.25 GHz), and FR5 (114.25 GHz to 300 GHz). Each of these higher bands falls within the EHF band.

[0044] Taking the above aspects into account, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if the term “sub-6 GHz” etc. is used herein, it can generally represent frequencies that can be less than 6 GHz, can be within FR1, or can include mid-band frequencies. In addition, unless otherwise specifically stated, it should be understood that if the term “millimeter wave” etc. is used herein, it can generally represent frequencies that can include mid-band frequencies, can be within FR2, FR4, FR4-a or FR4-1, and / or FR5, or can be within the EHF band.

[0045] In a multi-carrier system such as 5G, one of the carrier frequencies is referred to as the "primary carrier" or "anchor carrier" or "primary serving cell" or "PCell", and the remaining carrier frequencies are referred to as "secondary carriers" or "secondary serving cells" or "SCells". In carrier aggregation, the anchor carrier is a carrier operating on the primary frequency (e.g., FR1) used by the UE 104 / 182 and the cell, where the UE 104 / 182 performs the initial radio resource control (RRC) connection establishment process or initiates the RRC connection reconstruction process in that cell. The primary carrier carries all common and UE-specific control channels and can be a carrier in a licensed frequency (however, this is not always the case). The secondary carrier is a carrier operating on a second frequency (e.g., FR2), which can be configured and used to provide additional radio resources once an RRC connection is established between the UE 104 and the anchor carrier. In some cases, the secondary carrier can be a carrier in an unlicensed frequency. The secondary carrier may only contain necessary signaling information and signals. For example, since the primary uplink carrier and the primary downlink carrier are typically UE-specific, those UE-specific signaling information and signals may not be present in the secondary carrier. This means that different UEs 104 / 182 in a cell can have different downlink primary carriers. The same holds for the uplink primary carriers. The network can change the primary carrier of any UE 104 / 182 at any time. This is done, for example, to balance the load on different carriers. Since a "serving cell" (whether PCell or SCell) corresponds to the carrier frequency / component carrier through which a certain base station communicates, terms such as "cell", "serving cell", "component carrier", "carrier frequency", etc. may be used interchangeably.

[0046] For example, still referring to Figure 1 , one of the frequencies used by the macro cell base station 102 can be the anchor carrier (or "PCell"), and the other frequencies used by the macro cell base station 102 and / or the mmW base station 180 can be secondary carriers ("SCells"). The simultaneous transmission and / or reception of multiple carriers enables the UE 104 / 182 to significantly increase its data transmission and / or reception rate. For example, compared to the data rate obtained with a single 20 MHz carrier, two 20 MHz aggregated carriers in a multi-carrier system would theoretically result in a doubling of the data rate (i.e., 40 MHz).

[0047] In Figure 1 's example, the illustrated UE (for simplicity, in Figure 1Any UE shown as a single UE 104 in the figure can receive signal 124 from one or more space vehicles (SVs) 112 in Earth orbit (e.g., satellites). In one aspect, the SV 112 can be part of a satellite positioning system that the UE 104 can use as an independent source of position information. A satellite positioning system generally includes a system of transmitters (e.g., SV 112) that are positioned such that a receiver (e.g., UE 104) can determine its position on or above the Earth at least in part based on positioning signals received from the transmitters (e.g., signal 124). Such transmitters typically send signals marked with a repeating pseudo-random noise (PN) code with a set number of chips. Although typically located in the SV 112, the transmitters can sometimes be located on a ground-based control station, base station 102, and / or other UE 104. The UE 104 can include one or more dedicated receivers that are specifically designed to receive signal 124 in order to derive geographical location information from the SV 112.

[0048] In a satellite positioning system, the use of signal 124 can be enhanced by various satellite-based augmentation systems (SBAS) that can be associated with or otherwise enable the use of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellite systems. For example, the SBAS can include augmentation systems that provide integrity information, differential corrections, etc., such as the Wide Area Augmentation System (WAAS), the European Geostationary Navigation Overlay Service (EGNOS), the Multi-functional Satellite Augmentation System (MSAS), the Global Positioning System (GPS)-aided Geo Augmented Navigation or GPS and Geo Augmented Navigation System (GAGAN), etc. Thus, as used herein, a satellite positioning system can include any combination of one or more global and / or regional navigation satellites associated with such one or more satellite positioning systems.

[0049] In one aspect, the SV 112 can additionally or alternatively be part of one or more non-terrestrial networks (NTN). In the NTN, the SV 112 is connected to an earth station (also referred to as a ground station, NTN gateway, or gateway) that in turn is connected to elements in the 5G network, such as a modified base station 102 (without a ground antenna) or a network node in the 5GC. This element then provides access to other elements in the 5G network and ultimately provides access to entities external to the 5G network, such as Internet web servers and other user devices. Thus, instead of or in addition to communication signals from the ground base station 102, the UE 104 can receive communication signals (e.g., signal 124) from the SV 112.

[0050] In particular, leveraging the increased data rate and reduced latency of NR, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication technologies are being implemented to support intelligent transportation system (ITS) applications, such as wireless communication between vehicles (vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V)), between a vehicle and roadside infrastructure (vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I)), and between a vehicle and a pedestrian (vehicle-to-pedestrian (V2P)). The goal is to enable vehicles to sense their surrounding environment and communicate this information to other vehicles, infrastructure, and personal mobile devices. Such vehicle communication will achieve safety, mobility, and environmental improvements that are not available with current technologies. Once fully implemented, the technology is expected to reduce unimpaired vehicle collisions by 80%.

[0051] Still referring to Figure 1 , the wireless communication system 100 may include a plurality of V-UEs 160, which may communicate with the base station 102 on the communication link 120 using the Uu interface (i.e., the air interface between the UE and the base station). The V-UEs 160 may also communicate directly with each other on the wireless sidelink 162, communicate with the roadside unit (RSU) 164 (roadside access point) on the wireless sidelink 166, or communicate with the UE 104 having sidelink capabilities on the wireless sidelink 168 using the PC5 interface (i.e., the air interface between UEs having sidelink capabilities). The wireless sidelink (or simply referred to as "sidelink") is an adaptation of the core cellular network (e.g., LTE, NR) standard that allows direct communication between two or more UEs without communicating through a base station. Sidelink communication can be unicast or multicast and can be used for device-to-device (D2D) media sharing, V2V communication, V2X communication (e.g., cellular V2X (cV2X) communication, enhanced V2X (eV2X) communication, etc.), emergency rescue applications, etc. One or more of the V-UEs 160 in a group of V-UEs 160 utilizing sidelink communication may be within the geographical coverage area 110 of the base station 102. Other V-UEs 160 in such a group may be outside the geographical coverage area 110 of the base station 102 or may not be able to receive transmissions from the base station 102 for other reasons. In some cases, the groups of V-UEs 160 communicating via sidelink communication may utilize a one-to-many (1:M) system, where each V-UE 160 transmits to each other V-UE 160 in the group. In some cases, the base station 102 facilitates the scheduling of resources for sidelink communication. In other cases, sidelink communication is performed between the V-UEs 160 without involving the base station 102.

[0052] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may operate over a wireless communication medium of interest, which may be shared with other wireless communications between other vehicles and / or infrastructure access points and other RATs. The "medium" may include one or more time, frequency, and / or spatial communication resources associated with wireless communication between one or more transmitter / receiver pairs (e.g., covering one or more channels across one or more carriers).

[0053] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may be cV2X links. The first generation of cV2X has been standardized in LTE, and the next generation is expected to be defined in NR. cV2X is a cellular technology that also enables device-to-device communication. In the United States and Europe, cV2X is expected to operate in the licensed ITS band below 6 GHz. Other bands may be allocated in other countries. Thus, as a specific example, the medium of interest utilized by the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may correspond to at least a portion of the licensed ITS band below 6 GHz. However, the present disclosure is not limited to this band or cellular technology.

[0054] In one aspect, the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may be dedicated short-range communication (DSRC) links. DSRC is a one-way or two-way short-range to medium-range wireless communication protocol that uses the wireless access in vehicular environments (WAVE) protocol (also known as IEEE 802.11p) for V2V, V2I, and V2P communications. IEEE 802.11p is an approved modification of the IEEE 802.11 standard and operates in the licensed ITS band at 5.9 GHz (5.85 GHz - 5.925 GHz) in the United States. In Europe, IEEE 802.11p operates in the ITS G5A band (5.875 GHz - 5.905 MHz). Other bands may be allocated in other countries. The V2V communication described above occurs over a secure channel, which is typically a 10 MHz channel dedicated for security purposes in the United States. The remainder of the DSRC band (total bandwidth is 75 MHz) is intended for other services of interest to the driver, such as road rules, tolling, parking automation, etc. Thus, as a specific example, the medium of interest utilized by the sidelinks 162, 166, 168 may correspond to at least a portion of the licensed ITS band at 5.9 GHz.

[0055] Alternatively, the medium of interest may correspond to at least a portion of an unlicensed band that is shared among various RATs. Although different licensed bands have been reserved for certain communication systems (e.g., by government entities such as the Federal Communications Commission (FCC) in the United States), these systems (especially those employing small cell access points) have recently extended their operations into unlicensed bands such as the unlicensed National Information Infrastructure (U-NII) bands used by wireless local area network (WLAN) technologies (most notably the IEEE 802.11x WLAN technologies commonly referred to as "Wi-Fi"). Example systems of this type include different variants of CDMA systems, TDMA systems, FDMA systems, orthogonal FDMA (OFDMA) systems, single-carrier FDMA (SC-FDMA) systems, etc.

[0056] Communication between V-UEs 160 is referred to as V2V communication, communication between a V-UE 160 and one or more RSU 164 is referred to as V2I communication, and communication between a V-UE 160 and one or more UEs 104 (where these UEs 104 are P-UEs) is referred to as V2P communication. V2V communication between V-UEs 160 may include, for example, information regarding the location, speed, acceleration, heading, and other vehicle data of these V-UEs 160. V2I information received at a V-UE 160 from one or more RSU 164 may include, for example, road rules, parking automation information, etc. V2P communication between a V-UE 160 and a UE 104 may include information regarding, for example, the location, speed, acceleration, and heading of the V-UE 160 and the location, speed (e.g., in the case where the UE 104 is carried by a cycling user), and heading of the UE 104.

[0057] Note that although Figure 1 only two of the UEs are illustrated as V-UEs (V-UE 160), any of the illustrated UEs (e.g., UEs 104, 152, 182, 190) may be a V-UE. Additionally, although only these V-UEs 160 and a single UE 104 have been illustrated as being connected via a sidelink, Figure 1Any of the illustrated UEs, whether a V-UE, P-UE, etc., may be capable of performing sidelink communication. Additionally, although only UE 182 is described as being capable of beamforming, any of the illustrated UEs (including V-UE 160) may be capable of beamforming. In the case where V-UEs 160 are capable of beamforming, they may beamform towards each other (i.e., towards other V-UEs 160), towards RSU 164, towards other UEs (e.g., UEs 104, 152, 182, 190), etc. Thus, in some cases, V-UEs 160 may utilize beamforming on sidelinks 162, 166, and 168.

[0058] Wireless communication system 100 may also include one or more UEs (such as UE 190) that are indirectly connected to one or more communication networks via one or more device-to-device (D2D) peer-to-peer (P2P) links. In Figure 1 the example, UE 190 has a D2D P2P link 192 with one of the UEs 104 that is connected to one of the base stations 102 (e.g., UE 190 may indirectly obtain cellular connectivity through this D2D P2P link), and has a D2D P2P link 194 with WLAN STA 152 that is connected to WLAN AP 150 (UE 190 may indirectly obtain WLAN-based Internet connectivity through this D2D P2P link). In one example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be supported by any well-known D2D RAT, such as LTE Direct (LTE-D), WiFi Direct (WiFi-D), Bluetooth ® etc. As another example, D2D P2P links 192 and 194 may be sidelinks, as described above with reference to sidelinks 162, 166, and 168.

[0059] Figure 2AAn example wireless network structure 200 is illustrated. For example, the 5GC 210 (also referred to as the Next Generation Core (NGC)) can be functionally regarded as a control plane (C-plane) function 214 (e.g., UE registration, authentication, network access, gateway selection, etc.) and a user plane (U-plane) function 212 (e.g., UE gateway function, access to data networks, IP routing, etc.), which cooperate to form the core network. The user plane interface (NG-U) 213 and the control plane interface (NG-C) 215 connect the gNB 222 to the 5GC 210, and specifically connect to the user plane function 212 and the control plane function 214 respectively. In an additional configuration, the ng-eNB 224 can also be connected to the 5GC 210 via the NG-C 215 to the control plane function 214 and the NG-U 213 to the user plane function 212. In addition, the ng-eNB 224 can communicate directly with the gNB 222 via a backhaul connection 223. In some configurations, the Next Generation RAN (NG-RAN) 220 can have one or more gNBs 222, while other configurations include one or more of either the ng-eNB 224 and the gNB 222. Either the gNB 222 or the ng-eNB 224 (or both) can communicate with one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein).

[0060] Another optional aspect can include a location server 230, which can communicate with the 5GC 210 to provide location assistance for the UE 204. The location server 230 can be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively can each correspond to a single server. The location server 230 can be configured to support one or more location services for the UE 204 that can be connected to the location server 230 via the core network, the 5GC 210, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). In addition, the location server 230 can be integrated into a component of the core network, or alternatively can be external to the core network (e.g., a third-party server, such as an original equipment manufacturer (OEM) server or a service server).

[0061] Figure 2B Another example wireless network structure 240 is illustrated. The 5GC 260 (which can correspond to Figure 2AAmong them, the 5GC 210) can be functionally regarded as the control plane function provided by the Access and Mobility Management Function (AMF) 264 and the user plane function provided by the User Plane Function (UPF) 262, which cooperate to form the core network (i.e., 5GC 260). The functions of the AMF 264 include: registration management, connection management, reachability management, mobility management, lawful interception, transmission of session management (SM) messages between one or more UEs 204 (e.g., any of the UEs described herein) and the Session Management Function (SMF) 266, transparent proxy service for routing SM messages, access authentication and access authorization, transmission of Short Message Service (SMS) messages between the UE 204 and the Short Message Service Function (SMSF) (not shown), and Security Anchor Functionality (SEAF). The AMF 264 also interacts with the Authentication Server Function (AUSF) (not shown) and the UE 204, and receives the intermediate key established as a result of the UE 204 authentication process. In the case of authentication based on a UMTS (Universal Mobile Telecommunications System) Subscriber Identity Module (USIM), the AMF 264 retrieves the security material from the AUSF. The functions of the AMF 264 also include Security Context Management (SCM). The SCM receives the key from the SEAF, and the SCM uses this key to derive the access network-specific key. The functionality of the AMF 264 also includes location service management for regulatory services, transmission of location service messages between the UE 204 and the Location Management Function (LMF) 270 (which acts as the location server 230), transmission of location service messages between the NG-RAN 220 and the LMF 270, allocation of evolved packet system (EPS) bearer identifiers for EPS interoperability, and UE 204 mobility event notification. In addition, the AMF 264 also supports functionality for non-3GPP (Third Generation Partnership Project) access networks.

[0062] The functions of UPF 262 include: acting as an anchor point for in-RAT / inter-RAT mobility (when applicable), acting as an external protocol data unit (PDU) session point for the interconnection to a data network (not shown), providing packet routing and forwarding, packet inspection, user plane policy rule enforcement (e.g., gating, redirection, traffic steering), lawful interception (user plane collection), traffic usage reporting, quality of service (QoS) handling of the user plane (e.g., uplink / downlink rate enforcement, reflected QoS marking in the downlink), uplink traffic verification (service data flow (SDF) to QoS flow mapping), transport-level packet marking in the uplink and downlink, downlink packet buffering and downlink data notification triggering, and transmitting and forwarding one or more "end markers" to the source RAN node. UPF 262 may also support the transfer of location service messages between UE 204 and a location server (such as SLP 272) on the user plane.

[0063] The functions of SMF 266 include session management, UE Internet Protocol (IP) address allocation and management, selection and control of user plane functions, traffic steering configuration for routing traffic to the correct destination at UPF 262, partial control of policy enforcement and QoS, and downlink data notification. The interface through which SMF 266 communicates with AMF 264 is referred to as the N11 interface.

[0064] Another optional aspect may include LMF 270, which may communicate with 5GC 260 to provide location assistance for UE 204. LMF 270 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively may each correspond to a single server. LMF 270 may be configured to support one or more location services for UE 204, which may be connected to LMF 270 via the core network, 5GC 260, and / or via the Internet (not illustrated). SLP 272 may support similar functions to LMF 270, but LMF 270 may communicate with AMF 264, NG-RAN 220, and UE 204 on the control plane (e.g., using interfaces and protocols designed to carry signaling messages rather than voice or data), and SLP 272 may communicate with UE 204 and an external client (e.g., third-party server 274) on the user plane (e.g., using protocols designed to carry voice and / or data, such as Transmission Control Protocol (TCP) and / or IP).

[0065] Another optional aspect may include a third-party server 274, which may communicate with the LMF 270, SLP 272, 5GC 260 (e.g., via the AMF 264 and / or UPF 262), NG-RAN 220, and / or UE 204 to obtain location information (e.g., a location estimate) of the UE 204. Thus, in some cases, the third-party server 274 may be referred to as a location service (LCS) client or an external client. The third-party server 274 may be implemented as multiple separate servers (e.g., physically separate servers, different software modules on a single server, different software modules distributed across multiple physical servers, etc.), or alternatively may each correspond to a single server.

[0066] The user plane interface 263 and the control plane interface 265 connect the 5GC 260, and specifically the UPF 262 and the AMF 264, to one or more gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 in the NG-RAN 220, respectively. The interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the AMF 264 is referred to as the "N2" interface, while the interface between the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 and the UPF 262 is referred to as the "N3" interface. The gNBs 222 and / or ng-eNBs 224 of the NG-RAN 220 may communicate directly with each other via a backhaul connection 223 referred to as the "Xn-C" interface. One or more of the gNB 222 and / or ng-eNB 224 may communicate with one or more UEs 204 via a radio interface referred to as the "Uu" interface.

[0067] The functionality of gNB 222 is divided between a gNB Central Unit (gNB-CU) 226, one or more gNB Distributed Units (gNB-DU) 228, and one or more gNB Radio Units (gNB-RU) 229. The gNB-CU 226 is a logical node that includes base station functions other than those specifically allocated to the gNB-DU 228, including passing user data, mobility control, radio access network sharing, positioning, session management, etc. More specifically, the gNB-CU 226 typically hosts the Radio Resource Control (RRC), Service Data Adaptation Protocol (SDAP), and Packet Data Convergence Protocol (PDCP) protocols of the gNB 222. The gNB-DU 228 is a logical node that typically hosts the Radio Link Control (RLC) and Medium Access Control (MAC) layers of the gNB 222. Its operation is controlled by the gNB-CU 226. One gNB-DU 228 can support one or more cells, and one cell is supported by only one gNB-DU 228. The interface 232 between the gNB-CU 226 and one or more gNB-DU 228s is referred to as the "F1" interface. The physical (PHY) layer functionality of the gNB 222 is typically hosted by one or more independent gNB-RU 229s, which perform functions such as power amplification and signal transmission / reception. The interface between the gNB-DU 228 and the gNB-RU 229 is referred to as the "Fx" interface. Thus, the UE 204 communicates with the gNB-CU 226 via the RRC layer, SDAP layer, and PDCP layer, communicates with the gNB-DU 228 via the RLC layer and MAC layer, and communicates with the gNB-RU 229 via the PHY layer.

[0068] Autonomous and semi-autonomous safety technologies use a combination of hardware (sensors, cameras, and radars) and software to help vehicles identify certain safety risks so that they can warn the driver to take action (in the case of ADAS) or act on their own (in the case of ADS) to avoid collisions. Vehicles equipped with ADAS or ADS include one or more camera sensors mounted on the vehicle, which capture images of the area in front of the vehicle, and also possibly the area behind and to the sides of the vehicle. Radar systems can also be used to detect objects along the driving road and possibly behind and to the sides of the vehicle. The radar system uses RF waves to determine the range, direction, speed, and / or height of an object along the road. More specifically, the transmitter sends pulses of RF waves that bounce off any object in their path. The pulses reflected from the object return a small portion of the energy of the RF wave to the receiver, which is typically located in the same position as the transmitter. The camera and the radar are typically oriented to capture their respective versions of the same scene.

[0069] A processor within the vehicle, such as a digital signal processor (DSP), analyzes the captured camera images and radar frames and attempts to identify objects within the captured scene. Such objects can be other vehicles, pedestrians, road signs, objects within the driving road, etc. The radar system provides reasonably accurate measurements of object distance and speed under various weather conditions. However, the radar system typically does not have sufficient resolution to identify the characteristics of the detected objects. However, camera sensors typically do provide sufficient resolution to identify object characteristics. Hints of object shape and appearance extracted from the captured images can provide sufficient characteristics for the classification of different objects. Given the complementary nature of the two sensors, data from the two sensors can be combined (referred to as "fusion") in a single system for improved performance.

[0070] Modern motor vehicles are increasingly incorporating technologies that help drivers avoid drifting into adjacent lanes or making unsafe lane changes (e.g., lane departure warning (LDW)), or technologies that warn the drivers of other vehicles behind them when the motor vehicle is backing up, or technologies that automatically brake if the vehicle in front of the motor vehicle suddenly stops or decelerates (e.g., forward collision warning (FCW)), and so on. The continuous evolution of automotive technology aims to provide even greater safety benefits and ultimately provide an autonomous driving system (ADS) that can take over the entire driving task without user intervention.

[0071] There are six defined levels to achieve full automation. At level 0, the human driver performs all driving. At level 1, the advanced driver assistance system (ADAS) on the vehicle can sometimes assist the human driver with steering or braking / accelerating, but not both simultaneously. At level 2, the ADAS on the vehicle can actually control both steering and braking / accelerating simultaneously in some cases. The human driver must continue to pay full attention at all times and perform the remaining driving tasks. At level 3, the ADS on the vehicle itself can perform all aspects of the driving task in certain situations. In these situations, the human driver must be ready to take back control at any time when the ADS requests the human driver to take back control. In all other cases, the human driver performs the driving task. At level 4, the ADS on the vehicle itself can perform all driving tasks and monitor the driving environment, and in some cases, perform all driving substantially. In these situations, the human does not need to pay attention. At level 5, the ADS on the vehicle can perform all driving in all situations. The human occupants are just passengers and never need to be involved in driving.

[0072] To further enhance ADAS and ADS systems, especially at level 3 and higher levels, autonomous and semi-autonomous vehicles can utilize high-definition (HD) map data sets that contain significantly more detailed information and true ground absolute accuracy than found in current conventional resources. Such HD maps can provide accuracy within an absolute range of 7 cm to 10 cm, a highly detailed inventory of all fixed physical assets related to the road, such as road lanes, road edges, shoulders, dividers, traffic signals, signage, paint markings, poles, and other data that assist in the safe navigation of autonomous / semi-autonomous vehicles on roads and at intersections. HD maps can also provide electronic horizon prediction awareness, which enables autonomous / semi-autonomous vehicles to know what lies ahead.

[0073] Note that an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle can be but does not have to be a V-UE. Similarly, a V-UE can be but does not have to be an autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle. An autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle is a vehicle equipped with ADAS or ADS. A V-UE is a vehicle having cellular connectivity to 5G or other cellular networks. An autonomous or semi-autonomous vehicle that uses or is capable of using cellular technology for positioning and / or navigation is a V-UE.

[0074] Now referring to Figure 3 , vehicle 300 (referred to as the "ego vehicle" or "host vehicle") is illustrated, which includes a radar camera sensor module 320 located in an interior compartment behind the windshield 312 of vehicle 300. The radar camera sensor module 320 includes a radar component configured to transmit radar signals through the windshield 312 in a horizontal coverage area 350 (shown by the dashed line) and receive reflected radar signals reflected from any object within the coverage area 350. The radar camera sensor module 320 also includes a camera component for capturing images based on light waves seen and captured through the windshield 312 in a horizontal coverage area 360 (shown by the dashed line).

[0075] Although Figure 3 illustrates an example where the radar component and the camera component are co-located components in a shared housing, it will be appreciated that they can be separately housed in different locations within vehicle 300. For example, the camera can be positioned as Figure 3 shown, and the radar component can be located in the fender or front bumper of vehicle 300. Additionally, although Figure 3 illustrates the radar camera sensor module 320 located behind the windshield 312, it can alternatively be located in a top sensor array or elsewhere. Furthermore, although Figure 3Only a single radar camera sensor module 320 is illustrated, but as will be appreciated, vehicle 300 may have multiple radar camera sensor modules 320 pointing in different directions (side, front, rear, etc.). The various radar camera sensor modules 320 may be under the "skin" of the vehicle (e.g., behind windshield 312, door panels, bumpers, fenders, etc.) or within a top sensor array.

[0076] The radar camera sensor module 320 can detect one or more objects (or no objects) relative to vehicle 300. In Figure 3 the example, there are two objects within horizontal coverage areas 350 and 360 that the radar camera sensor module 320 can detect: vehicles 330 and 340. The radar camera sensor module 320 can estimate parameters of the detected objects, such as position, range, orientation, speed, size, classification (e.g., vehicle, pedestrian, road sign, etc.), and the like. The radar camera sensor module 320 can be used on-board vehicle 300 for automotive safety applications, such as adaptive cruise control (ACC), forward collision warning (FCW), collision mitigation or avoidance via autonomous braking, lane departure warning (LDW), and the like.

[0077] Co-locating the camera and radar permits these components to share electronics and signal processing, and in particular enables early radar camera data fusion. For example, the radar and camera can be integrated onto a single board. A joint radar camera alignment technique can be employed to align both the radar and the camera. However, co-location of the radar and camera is not required to practice the techniques described herein.

[0078] Figure 4 An on-board computer (OBC) 400 of vehicle 300 in accordance with various aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. In one aspect, OBC 400 can be part of an ADAS or ADS. OBC 400 can also be the V-UE of vehicle 300. OBC 400 includes a non-transitory computer-readable storage medium (i.e., memory 404) and one or more processors 406 communicatively coupled to memory 404 via a data bus 408. Memory 404 includes one or more storage modules storing computer-readable instructions that can be executed by one or more processors 406 to perform the functions of OBC 400 described herein. For example, one or more processors 406 in combination with memory 404 can implement the various operations described herein.

[0079] One or more radar camera sensor modules 320 are coupled to OBC 400 (for simplicity, Figure 4(only one is shown). In some aspects, the radar camera sensor module 320 includes at least one camera 412, at least one radar 414, and optionally, an optical detection and ranging (lidar) sensor 416. The OBC 400 also includes one or more system interfaces 410 that connect one or more processors 406 to the radar camera sensor module 320 via a data bus 408 and optionally, to other vehicle subsystems (not shown).

[0080] In at least some cases, the OBC 400 also includes one or more wireless wide area network (WWAN) transceivers 430 that are configured to communicate via one or more wireless communication networks (not shown) (such as an NR network, an LTE network, a global system for mobile communications (GSM) network, etc.). One or more WWAN transceivers 430 may be connected to one or more antennas (not shown) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other V-UEs, pedestrian UEs, infrastructure access points, roadside units (RSUs), base stations (e.g., eNBs, gNBs), etc.) via at least one specified radio access technology (RAT) (e.g., NR, LTE, GSM, etc.) through an interested wireless communication medium (e.g., a certain set of time / frequency resources in a specific spectrum). One or more WWAN transceivers 430 may be configured in various ways to transmit and encode signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to the specified RAT and vice versa to receive and decode signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.).

[0081] In at least some cases, the OBC 400 also includes one or more short-range wireless transceivers 440 (e.g., Wi-Fi transceivers, Bluetooth transceivers, etc.). One or more short-range wireless transceivers 440 may be connected to one or more antennas (not shown) for communicating with other network nodes (such as other V-UEs, pedestrian UEs, infrastructure access points, RSUs, etc.) via at least one specified RAT (e.g., cellular vehicle-to-everything (C-V2X), IEEE 802.11p (also known as wireless access for vehicle environments (WAVE)), dedicated short-range communications (DSRC), etc.) through an interested wireless communication medium. One or more short-range wireless transceivers 440 may be configured in various ways to transmit and encode signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, etc.) according to the specified RAT and vice versa to receive and decode signals (e.g., messages, indications, information, pilots, etc.).

[0082] As used herein, a "transceiver" may include a transmitter circuit, a receiver circuit, or a combination thereof, but need not provide both transmit and receive functionality in all designs. For example, when it is not necessary to provide full communication, a low-functionality receiver circuit may be employed in some designs to reduce cost (e.g., a receiver chip or similar circuit that simply provides low-level sniffing).

[0083] At least in some cases, the OBC 400 further includes a Global Navigation Satellite System (GNSS) receiver 450. The GNSS receiver 450 may be connected to one or more antennas (not shown) for receiving satellite signals. The GNSS receiver 450 may include any suitable hardware and / or software for receiving and processing GNSS signals. The GNSS receiver 450 requests information and operations from other systems as appropriate and performs the calculations required to determine the position of the vehicle 300 using measurements obtained by any suitable GNSS algorithm.

[0084] In one aspect, the OBC 400 may utilize one or more WWAN transceivers 430 and / or one or more short-range wireless transceivers 440 to download one or more maps 402, which may then be stored in the memory 404 and used for vehicle navigation. The maps 402 may be one or more high-definition (HD) maps that may provide an accuracy within an absolute range of 7 cm to 10 cm, a highly detailed inventory of all fixed physical assets related to the road, such as road lanes, road edges, shoulders, dividers, traffic signals, signs, paint markings, poles, and other data that assist in the safe navigation of the vehicle 300 on the road and at intersections. The maps 402 may also provide electronic horizon prediction awareness, which enables the vehicle 300 to know what lies ahead.

[0085] The vehicle 300 may include one or more sensors 420 that may be coupled to one or more processors 406 via one or more system interfaces 410. The one or more sensors 420 may provide components for sensing or detecting information such as speed, heading (e.g., compass heading), headlight status, fuel consumption, etc., related to the state and / or environment of the vehicle 300. By way of example, the one or more sensors 420 may include an odometer, a speedometer, a tachometer, an accelerometer (e.g., a microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) device), a gyroscope, a geomagnetic sensor (e.g., a compass), an altimeter (e.g., a barometric altimeter), etc. Although shown as being outside the OBC 400, some of these sensors 420 may be located on the OBC 400, and some sensors may be located elsewhere in the vehicle 300.

[0086] The OBC 400 may also include a traffic flow component 418. The traffic flow component 418 can be a hardware circuit that is part of or coupled to the one or more processors 406, and when executed, causes the OBC 400 to perform the functionality described herein. In other aspects, the traffic flow component 418 can be external to the one or more processors 406 (e.g., part of a positioning processing system, integrated with another processing system, etc.). Alternatively, the traffic flow component 418 can be one or more memory modules stored in the memory 404, and when executed by the one or more processors 406 (or a positioning processing system, another processing system, etc.), the one or more memory modules cause the OBC 400 to perform the functionality described herein. As a specific example, the traffic flow component 418 can include multiple positioning engines, a positioning engine aggregator, a sensor fusion module, etc. Figure 4 Illustrates the possible locations of the traffic flow component 418, which can be part of, for example, the memory 404, the one or more processors 406, or any combination thereof, or can be a stand-alone component.

[0087] In one aspect, the camera 412 can capture image frames (also referred to herein as camera frames) of a scene within the observation area of the camera 412 (such as Figure 3 illustrated as the horizontal coverage area 360) at some periodic rate. In one aspect, the radar 414 can capture radar frames of a scene within the observation area of the radar 414 (such as Figure 3 illustrated as the horizontal coverage area 350) at some periodic rate. The periodic rates at which the camera 412 and the radar 414 capture their respective frames can be the same or different. Each camera and radar frame can be timestamped. Thus, in the case of different periodic rates, the timestamps can be used to select the captured camera frames and radar frames simultaneously or almost simultaneously for further processing (e.g., fusion).

[0088] For convenience, the OBC 400 is shown in Figure 4 as including various components that can be configured according to the various examples described herein. However, it should be understood that the illustrated components can have different functionality in different designs. Specifically, Figure 4 the individual components in

[0089] Figure 4 are optional in alternative configurations, and various aspects include configurations that can vary due to design choices, cost, use of the device, or other considerations. For the sake of brevity, illustrations of various alternative configurations are not provided herein, but will be readily understood by those skilled in the art. Figure 4The components may be implemented in one or more circuits, such as, for example, one or more processors and / or one or more ASICs (which may include one or more processors). Here, each circuit may use and / or incorporate at least one memory component for storing information or executable code used by the circuit to provide the functionality. For example, some or all of the functionality represented by blocks 402 through 450 may be implemented by the processor and memory components of UE 400 (e.g., by executing appropriate code and / or by appropriate configuration of the processor components). For simplicity, various operations, actions, and / or functions are described herein as being “performed by the UE,” “performed by the OBC,” or “performed by the vehicle.” However, as will be appreciated, such operations, actions, and / or functions may actually be performed by specific components or combinations of components of OBC 400, such as one or more processors 406, one or more transceivers 430 and 440, memory 404, traffic flow component 418, etc.

[0090] One of the main benefits of automated or autonomous vehicles is the opportunity to optimize traffic flow. A very common problem with traffic flow is traffic light synchronization. For example, a common scenario is that a large number of vehicles are traveling on a road in one direction (referred to as the “primary traffic flow” or “dominant traffic flow”), and stop at a traffic light to allow one vehicle or a much smaller number of vehicles (referred to as the “secondary traffic flow” or “inferior traffic flow”) to cross the road from a different direction. As will be appreciated, blocking an entire traffic flow at a traffic light to allow one or two vehicles to cross in front of them reduces traffic efficiency.

[0091] One solution is to install “intelligent” roadside infrastructure (e.g., traffic lights) and enable vehicles to communicate with the infrastructure (e.g., via a V2I protocol). The infrastructure would then be responsible for optimizing traffic flow. For example, referring to the intersection example above, the infrastructure could wait for an interruption in the primary traffic flow to allow a single vehicle to cross the intersection. However, implementing this method at each intersection along a road can be costly and slow.

[0092] Therefore, in the absence of intelligent infrastructure, the present disclosure provides techniques for enabling vehicles in the primary traffic flow and the secondary traffic flow to communicate with each other (e.g., via a V2V protocol) to determine traffic flow patterns. Referring to the intersection example, one or more vehicles in the primary traffic flow may determine that they are approaching an intersection and notify any vehicles in the secondary traffic flow to wait at the traffic light until they have passed. However, if vehicles in the secondary traffic flow are allowed to freely reach the intersection, they will inevitably trigger the traffic light sensors and cause the traffic light to switch, thus stopping the primary traffic flow.

[0093] To solve this problem, at least the lead vehicle in the secondary traffic flow can determine the position of the traffic light sensor on the road and stop near the sensor to avoid triggering the traffic light. When allowed to proceed through the intersection (e.g., due to an interruption in the primary traffic flow or after a certain threshold time period), the lead vehicle can move forward and trigger the traffic light at the correct time to avoid stopping any other traffic vehicles. Alternatively, where possible, the lead vehicle in the secondary traffic flow can decelerate sufficiently in advance so that it does not trigger the sensor before the appropriate time, rather than coming to a complete stop before the traffic light sensor. This option can be more fuel-efficient and safer because the vehicle will not stop on the road downstream of the traffic light.

[0094] Figure 5 FIG. 500 is an example intersection having a primary traffic flow and a secondary traffic flow, illustrating aspects of the present disclosure. As Figure 5 shown, the lead vehicle 510 in the secondary traffic flow is approaching a "T" intersection connected to the primary traffic flow. Based on the traffic light sensor 530 being triggered (e.g., by the lead vehicle 510), the traffic light 520 at the intersection may be triggered to change from red to green for the secondary traffic flow.

[0095] The lead vehicle 510 in the secondary traffic flow can determine the position of the traffic light sensor 530 based on a camera (e.g., camera 412), radar (e.g., radar 414), lidar (e.g., lidar sensor 416), GPS (i.e., the GPS coordinates of the sensor), machine learning algorithms (to determine whether the detected object is a traffic light sensor), a public database of sensor locations, HD map data that may include sensor locations (e.g., map 402), or any combination thereof. As more and more vehicles implement the techniques disclosed herein, the public database can be used to enhance the accuracy of detecting the sensor at any given traffic light.

[0096] In some cases, the position of the traffic light sensor 530 can be indicated by various visual means, such as lines painted on the road or signs at the location of the traffic light sensor 530, or the point at which the traffic light sensor 530 will be triggered. In the Figure 5 example of FIG. 500, painted stripes 540 on the road of the secondary traffic flow indicate the position of the traffic light sensor 530 and thus the position at which the traffic light sensor 530 will be triggered and the traffic light 520 will be triggered to change. In some cases, the lead vehicle 510 may be able to detect the traffic light sensor itself. The lead vehicle 510 can perform object detection based on captured camera / radar / lidar data to detect these visual indications of the position of the traffic light sensor, possibly also using machine learning algorithms.

[0097] The lead vehicle 510 can also use one or more of the same sensors to determine that it is the lead vehicle 510 of a secondary traffic flow. For example, the lead vehicle 510 can determine from a camera, radar, and / or lidar that there are no other vehicles between it and the intersection, and can determine from map data that it is on a secondary road of a primary road. Alternatively, if data from a camera, radar, and / or lidar may indicate that a large number of vehicles are traveling perpendicular (or some other non-parallel direction) to the lead vehicle 510, the lead vehicle 510 can determine that it is in a secondary traffic flow based on the camera, radar, and / or lidar.

[0098] The lead vehicle 510 can also determine that it is part of a secondary traffic flow based on notifications received from one or more vehicles in the primary traffic flow. For example, one or more vehicles in the primary traffic flow can send a notification to the lead vehicle 510. The notification can indicate that the vehicle is part of a group of vehicles approaching or passing through an intersection, and that the lead vehicle 510 should wait for them to pass. In Figure 5 the example of, three vehicles in the primary traffic flow are sending notifications 550 to the lead vehicle 510 in the secondary traffic flow. These notifications can be sent and received via a V2V protocol.

[0099] Vehicles in the primary traffic flow (referred to as "primary vehicles", "dominant vehicles", etc.) can determine that they are part of the primary traffic flow in various ways. For example, these vehicles can communicate their positions, directions of travel, speeds, etc. to each other, and determine that they are traveling in the same direction at the same speed (or within a threshold of the same speed) within a particular proximity to each other. As another example, especially in cases where not all vehicles in the primary traffic flow are capable of V2V communication, at least some vehicles in the primary traffic flow can use sensors (e.g., cameras, radar, lidar) to detect the number, direction, and speed of the vehicles around them. If a sufficient number of other vehicles traveling in the same direction at the same speed are detected (i.e., above a certain threshold), the primary vehicle can determine that it is part of the primary traffic flow. As will be appreciated, there are also other ways for vehicles in the primary traffic flow to determine that they are in a large enough group such that they should not be stopped by a single vehicle on a secondary road at an intersection.

[0100] As briefly noted above, and as will be appreciated, not all vehicles in the primary traffic flow need to be capable of V2V communication and / or equipped with sensors (e.g., cameras, radar, lidar) that can detect the presence of other vehicles. It is sufficient for some of them to have V2V communication capabilities, since vehicles with V2V communication capabilities can detect other vehicles that do not have V2V communication capabilities and / or do not have the necessary sensors.

[0101] In addition, although Figure 5An example shows a "T" intersection where two directions of the main traffic flow move through the intersection simultaneously. However, as will be appreciated, this is merely an example and the intersection may be more complex such that only one traffic direction is allowed to pass through the intersection at a time. In such a case, the priority for passing through the intersection may be based on the size of the traffic flow, where the largest traffic flow (i.e., the largest group of vehicles traveling in the same direction at a relatively same speed within a range close enough to each other) has the highest priority, and the smallest traffic flow (i.e., the smallest group of vehicles traveling in the same direction at a relatively same speed within a range close enough to each other) has the lowest priority.

[0102] In some cases, the main traffic flow may have fewer vehicles than the secondary traffic flow, but one or more vehicles in the main traffic flow may have a higher priority than the vehicles in the secondary traffic flow. For example, a funeral procession, a police escort, an emergency rescue vehicle, etc. may be considered as the main traffic flow and have priority over a larger secondary traffic flow due to their priority.

[0103] Although the lead vehicle 510 of the secondary traffic flow may determine that it is the lead vehicle of the secondary traffic flow and should prevent the traffic light from changing until there is a gap in the main traffic flow when the main traffic flow passes through the intersection, this determination may be overridden. For example, the driver of a vehicle may prevent the lead vehicle 510 from autonomously stopping or decelerating near the traffic light sensor 530 (e.g., by controlling the vehicle), or the lead vehicle 510 may be a high-priority vehicle (e.g., an emergency rescue vehicle). In such a case, the lead vehicle 510 may notify the vehicles in the main traffic flow that it will not avoid triggering the traffic light 520, or simply approach the intersection normally without transmitting a notification.

[0104] Similarly, in the case where there are multiple vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, the lead vehicle 510 may notify the vehicles behind it that it will stop or decelerate to prevent triggering the traffic light 520. In the case where only some or none of the vehicles following the lead vehicle 510 in the secondary traffic flow are capable of V2V communication, the lead vehicle 510 may also or alternatively give some visual indication that it will stop or decelerate before the intersection. For example, the lead vehicle 510 may flash its tail lights (e.g., brake lights, reverse lights, and / or running lights) in a specific pattern. In the case where the next vehicle in the secondary traffic flow is equipped with a camera, it may detect the tail light pattern and flash the same pattern to the next vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, and so on. If a vehicle with V2V capabilities in the secondary traffic flow detects the tail light pattern, it may send a notification via V2V signaling and / or via the tail light pattern. Alternatively, instead of providing any signaling, the lead vehicle 510 may simply decelerate or stop to prevent triggering the traffic light 520.

[0105] In some cases, there may be more than one traffic lane traveling in the same direction in the secondary traffic flow. In such cases, the lead vehicles 510 in all the multiple lanes will need to stop or slow down to prevent triggering the traffic light 520. The multiple lead vehicles 510 can be coordinated via V2V signaling and / or a flashing light pattern. In the latter case, since the lead vehicles 510 may be side by side (relative to a single vehicle lead), the flashing light pattern may involve lights on the front (e.g., headlights, fog lights, running lights), rear (e.g., brake lights, reverse lights, running lights), and / or sides (e.g., side mirror lights, running lights) of the lead vehicles 510. Which lights are specifically used can depend on the positions of the lead vehicles 510 relative to each other, or may involve the same lights regardless of the relative positions of the lead vehicles 510.

[0106] In some cases, in situations where "intelligent" infrastructure is deployed at an intersection (e.g., the traffic light 520 is capable of V2X communication and optionally equipped with a camera), which traffic flow is primary and which is secondary can be determined by the infrastructure or with the help of the infrastructure. For example, the infrastructure can determine the size of the group of vehicles constituting the primary traffic flow based on V2X communication with the group members and / or camera / radar / lidar detection of the group members. The infrastructure can then notify the members that they are the primary traffic flow, and these members can broadcast the notification to any secondary traffic flows. Alternatively, the infrastructure can notify the vehicles in the secondary traffic flow that they should wait for the primary traffic flow to pass before triggering the traffic light 520. As yet another alternative, the infrastructure can simply relay the messages exchanged between the vehicles in different traffic flows.

[0107] The foregoing techniques do not require fully autonomous behavior of the vehicles involved. Instead, these vehicles can be semi-autonomous, at least up to level 2, and may or may not have V2V / V2X capabilities. The number of vehicles in the primary traffic flow required to trigger the disclosed behavior of the vehicles in the secondary traffic flow can be standardized or determined by the vehicle manufacturer.

[0108] Figure 6 An example method 600 of traffic flow control in accordance with aspects of the present disclosure is illustrated. In one aspect, method 600 can be performed by an OBC (e.g., OBC 400) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow.

[0109] At 610, the OBC determines that the primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, where the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, V2V communication, V2X communication, or any combination thereof. In one aspect, operation 610 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 430, one or more short range wireless transceivers 440, one or more processors 406, memory 404, and / or traffic flow component 418, any one or all of which may be considered a component for performing this operation.

[0110] At 620, the OBC reduces the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection. In one aspect, operation 620 may be performed by one or more WWAN transceivers 430, one or more short range wireless transceivers 440, one or more processors 406, memory 404, and / or traffic flow component 418, any one or all of which may be considered a component for performing this operation.

[0111] As will be appreciated, a technical advantage of method 600 is improved traffic flow at intersections with traffic lights.

[0112] In the foregoing detailed description, it can be seen that different features are grouped together in the various examples. This manner of disclosure should not be construed as intending that the example clauses have more features than those explicitly recited in each clause. Rather, various aspects of the present disclosure may include less than all of the features of the disclosed individual example clauses. Accordingly, the following clauses are hereby incorporated into the description, where each clause by itself may serve as a separate example. Although each dependent clause may refer in the clause to a particular combination with one of the other clauses, the aspects of that dependent clause are not limited to the particular combination. It should be understood that other example clauses may also include combinations of aspects of the dependent clause with the subject matter of any other dependent clause or independent clause or any feature with other dependent clauses and independent clauses. The various aspects disclosed herein expressly include these combinations, unless it is explicitly stated or readily inferable that a particular combination is not intended (e.g., contradictory aspects, such as defining an element as both an electrical insulator and an electrical conductor). Additionally, it is contemplated that aspects of the clauses may be included in any other independent clause, even if the clause does not directly depend on the independent clause.

[0113] Specific implementation examples are described in the following numbered clauses:

[0114] Clause 1. A method for traffic flow control performed by an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the method comprising: determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0115] Clause 2. The method according to Clause 1, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: receiving, via V2V communication, at least one notification from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0116] Clause 3. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 2, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: receiving, via V2X communication, at least one notification from roadside infrastructure associated with the intersection, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0117] Clause 4. The method according to Clause 3, wherein the at least one notification is relayed from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow.

[0118] Clause 5. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 4, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: detecting the primary traffic flow based on the sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle.

[0119] Clause 6. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 5, wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle comprise: one or more cameras, radar, lidar, or any combination thereof.

[0120] Clause 7. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 6, wherein the primary traffic flow is determined to be the primary traffic flow based on: the number of vehicles in the primary traffic flow being greater than a threshold, the priority of at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow being greater than the priority of the vehicle, or any combination thereof.

[0121] Clause 8. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 7, wherein reducing the speed of the vehicle includes: stopping the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor; or reducing the speed of the vehicle to a reduced speed before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor, wherein the reduced speed is selected to prevent the vehicle from stopping and to prevent triggering of the traffic light sensor before the main traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0122] Clause 9. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 8, wherein the position of the traffic light sensor is determined based on: the geographical coordinates of the position of the traffic light sensor, the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor, the map data indicating the position of the traffic light sensor, the database of the position of the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0123] Clause 10. The method according to Clause 9, wherein the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor includes: a marking on the road surface at the position of the traffic light sensor, a sign at the position of the traffic light sensor, the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0124] Clause 11. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 10, the method further comprising: determining that the vehicle is a leading vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, wherein the determination that the vehicle is the leading vehicle is based on second sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, V2V communication with one or more other vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, V2X communication with the infrastructure associated with the intersection, or any combination thereof.

[0125] Clause 12. The method according to Clause 11, the method further comprising: determining that a second vehicle is a second leading vehicle in a different lane of the secondary traffic flow; and coordinating with the second vehicle to reduce the speed of the second vehicle so as to prevent the second vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0126] Clause 13. The method according to Clause 12, wherein coordinating with the second vehicle includes: sending one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2V signaling; sending the one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2X signaling via roadside infrastructure; flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0127] Clause 14. The method according to any one of Clauses 1 to 13, the method further comprising: signaling to any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing its speed to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0128] Clause 15. The method according to clause 14, wherein the signaling includes: sending one or more notifications; flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0129] Clause 16. The method according to any one of clauses 1 to 15, the method further comprising: receiving an override command to prevent the vehicle from reducing the speed of the vehicle.

[0130] Clause 17. The method according to clause 16, wherein: the override command is received from a driver of the vehicle, or the override command is received based on determining that the vehicle is a high-priority vehicle.

[0131] Clause 18. On-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: a memory; at least one transceiver; and at least one processor, the at least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: determine that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reduce the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0132] Clause 19. The OBC according to clause 18, wherein the at least one processor configured to determine that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: via the at least one transceiver, receive at least one notification via V2V communication from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0133] Clause 20. The OBC according to any one of clauses 18 to 19, wherein the at least one processor configured to determine that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: via the at least one transceiver, receive at least one notification via V2X communication from roadside infrastructure associated with the intersection, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0134] Clause 21. The OBC according to clause 20, wherein the at least one notification is relayed from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow.

[0135] Clause 22. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 21, wherein the at least one processor configured to determine that the main traffic flow is passing through the intersection includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: detecting the main traffic flow based on the sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle.

[0136] Clause 23. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 22, wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle include: one or more cameras, radars, lidars, or any combination thereof.

[0137] Clause 24. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 23, wherein the main traffic flow is determined as the main traffic flow based on the following factors: the number of vehicles in the main traffic flow is greater than a threshold, the priority of at least one vehicle in the main traffic flow is greater than the priority of the vehicle, or any combination thereof.

[0138] Clause 25. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 24, wherein the at least one processor configured to reduce the speed of the vehicle includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: stopping the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor; or reducing the speed of the vehicle to a reduced speed before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor, wherein the reduced speed is selected to prevent the vehicle from stopping and to prevent triggering the traffic light sensor before the main traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0139] Clause 26. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 25, wherein the position of the traffic light sensor is determined based on the following factors: the geographical coordinates of the position of the traffic light sensor, the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor, the map data indicating the position of the traffic light sensor, the database of the position of the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0140] Clause 27. The OBC according to Clause 26, wherein the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor includes: a mark on the road surface at the position of the traffic light sensor, a sign at the position of the traffic light sensor, the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0141] Clause 28. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 27, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine that the vehicle is a leading vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, wherein the determination that the vehicle is the leading vehicle is based on second sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication with one or more other vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with the infrastructure associated with the intersection, or any combination thereof.

[0142] Clause 29. The OBC according to Clause 28, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: determine that a second vehicle is a second leading vehicle in a different lane of the secondary traffic flow; and coordinate with the second vehicle to reduce the speed of the second vehicle so as to prevent the second vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0143] Clause 30. The OBC according to Clause 29, wherein the at least one processor configured to coordinate with the second vehicle includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: send one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2V signaling via the at least one transceiver; send the one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2X signaling via roadside infrastructure via the at least one transceiver; flash the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or any combination thereof.

[0144] Clause 31. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 30, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: signal to any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing the speed of the vehicle so as to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0145] Clause 32. The OBC according to Clause 31, wherein the at least one processor configured to signal includes the at least one processor configured to perform the following operations: send one or more notifications via the at least one transceiver; flash the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or any combination thereof.

[0146] Clause 33. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 18 to 32, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: receive an override command via the at least one transceiver to prevent the vehicle from reducing the speed of the vehicle.

[0147] Clause 34. The OBC according to Clause 33, wherein: the override command is received from the driver of the vehicle, or the override command is received based on a determination that the vehicle is a high-priority vehicle.

[0148] Clause 35. An on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: components for: determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and components for: reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0149] Clause 36. The OBC according to clause 35, wherein the components for determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprise: components for: receiving, via V2V communication, at least one notification from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0150] Clause 37. The OBC according to any one of clauses 35 to 36, wherein the components for determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprise: components for: receiving, via V2X communication, at least one notification from roadside infrastructure associated with the intersection, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0151] Clause 38. The OBC according to clause 37, wherein the at least one notification is relayed from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow.

[0152] Clause 39. The OBC according to any one of clauses 35 to 38, wherein the components for determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprise: components for: detecting the primary traffic flow based on the sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle.

[0153] Clause 40. The OBC according to any one of clauses 35 to 39, wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle comprise: one or more cameras, radar, lidar, or any combination thereof.

[0154] Clause 41. The OBC according to any one of clauses 35 to 40, wherein the primary traffic flow is determined to be the primary traffic flow based on: the number of vehicles in the primary traffic flow being greater than a threshold, the priority of at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow being greater than the priority of the vehicle, or any combination thereof.

[0155] Clause 42. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 35 to 41, wherein the component for reducing the speed of the vehicle includes: a component for the following operation: stopping the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor; or a component for the following operation: reducing the speed of the vehicle to a reduced speed before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor, wherein the reduced speed is selected to prevent the vehicle from stopping and to prevent triggering the traffic light sensor before the main traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0156] Clause 43. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 35 to 42, wherein the position of the traffic light sensor is determined based on the following factors: the geographical coordinates of the position of the traffic light sensor, the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor, the map data indicating the position of the traffic light sensor, the database of the position of the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0157] Clause 44. The OBC according to Clause 43, wherein the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor includes: a mark on the road surface at the position of the traffic light sensor, a sign at the position of the traffic light sensor, the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0158] Clause 45. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 35 to 44, the OBC further includes: a component for the following operation: determining that the vehicle is the leading vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, wherein the determination that the vehicle is the leading vehicle is based on second sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, V2V communication with one or more other vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, V2X communication with the infrastructure associated with the intersection, or any combination thereof.

[0159] Clause 46. The OBC according to Clause 45, the OBC further includes: a component for the following operation: determining that a second vehicle is the leading vehicle in a different lane of the secondary traffic flow; and a component for the following operation: coordinating with the second vehicle to reduce the speed of the second vehicle so as to prevent the second vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0160] Clause 47. The OBC according to Clause 46, wherein the component for coordinating with the second vehicle includes: a component for the following operation: sending one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2V signaling; a component for the following operation: sending the one or more notifications to the second vehicle via roadside infrastructure via V2X signaling; a component for the following operation: flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0161] Clause 48. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 35 to 47, the OBC further comprising: components for the following operations: signaling to any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0162] Clause 49. The OBC according to Clause 48, wherein the components for signaling include: components for the following operations: sending one or more notifications; components for the following operations: flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0163] Clause 50. The OBC according to any one of Clauses 35 to 49, the OBC further comprising: components for the following operations: receiving an override command to prevent the vehicle from reducing the speed of the vehicle.

[0164] Clause 51. The OBC according to Clause 50, wherein: the override command is received from the driver of the vehicle, or the override command is received based on determining that the vehicle is a high-priority vehicle.

[0165] Clause 52. A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing computer-executable instructions that, when executed by an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, cause the OBC to: determine that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and reduce the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0166] Clause 53. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 52, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to determine that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: receiving, via V2V communication, at least one notification from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0167] Clause 54. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 53, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to determine that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: receive, via V2X communication, at least one notification from roadside infrastructure associated with the intersection, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

[0168] Clause 55. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 54, wherein the at least one notification is relayed from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow.

[0169] Clause 56. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 55, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to determine that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: detect the primary traffic flow based on the sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle.

[0170] Clause 57. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 56, wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle include: one or more cameras, radar, lidar, or any combination thereof.

[0171] Clause 58. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 57, wherein the primary traffic flow is determined to be the primary traffic flow based on the following factors: the number of vehicles in the primary traffic flow is greater than a threshold, the priority of at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow is greater than the priority of the vehicle, or any combination thereof.

[0172] Clause 59. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 58, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to reduce the speed of the vehicle include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: stop the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor; or reduce the speed of the vehicle to a reduced speed before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor, wherein the reduced speed is selected to prevent the vehicle from stopping and to prevent triggering the traffic light sensor before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

[0173] Clause 60. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 59, wherein the position of the traffic light sensor is determined based on the following factors: the geographical coordinates of the position of the traffic light sensor, the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor, the map data indicating the position of the traffic light sensor, the database of the position of the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0174] Clause 61. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 60, wherein the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor includes: markings on the road surface at the position of the traffic light sensor, signs at the position of the traffic light sensor, the traffic light sensor, or any combination thereof.

[0175] Clause 62. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 61, the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: determine that the vehicle is a leading vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, wherein the determination that the vehicle is the leading vehicle is based on second sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication with one or more other vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with the infrastructure associated with the intersection, or any combination thereof.

[0176] Clause 63. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 62, the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: determine that a second vehicle is a second leading vehicle in a different lane of the secondary traffic flow; and coordinate with the second vehicle to reduce the speed of the second vehicle so as to prevent the second vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0177] Clause 64. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 63, wherein the computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to coordinate with the second vehicle include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: send one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2V signaling; send the one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2X signaling via roadside infrastructure; flash the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0178] Clause 65. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 64, the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: signal to any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

[0179] Clause 66. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 65, wherein the computer-executable instructions that cause the OBC to signal when executed by the OBC include computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: send one or more notifications; flash the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or a combination thereof.

[0180] Clause 67. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to any one of Clauses 52 to 66, the non-transitory computer-readable medium further comprising computer-executable instructions that, when executed by the OBC, cause the OBC to perform the following operations: receive an override command to prevent the vehicle from reducing the speed of the vehicle.

[0181] Clause 68. The non-transitory computer-readable medium according to Clause 67, wherein: the override command is received from the driver of the vehicle, or the override command is received based on determining that the vehicle is a high-priority vehicle.

[0182] Those skilled in the art should understand that information and signals can be represented using any of a variety of different technologies and methods. For example, the data, instructions, commands, information, signals, bits, symbols, and chips that may be referred to throughout the above description may be represented by voltage, current, electromagnetic waves, magnetic fields or magnetic particles, optical fields or optical particles, or any combination thereof.

[0183] In addition, those skilled in the art should understand that the various illustrative logical blocks, modules, circuits, and algorithm steps described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented as electronic hardware, computer software, or a combination of both. To clearly illustrate this interchangeability of hardware and software, the various illustrative components, blocks, modules, circuits, and steps have been described above generally in terms of their functionality. Whether such functionality is implemented as hardware or software depends on the particular application and the design constraints imposed on the overall system. The skilled person may implement the described functionality in a different manner for each particular application, but such specific implementation decisions should not be construed as causing a departure from the scope of the present disclosure.

[0184] The various illustrative logical blocks, modules, and circuits described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be implemented or performed with a general purpose processor, a digital signal processor (DSP), an application specific integrated circuit (ASIC), a field programmable gate array (FPGA) or other programmable logic device, discrete gate or transistor logic, discrete hardware components, or any combination thereof designed to perform the functions described herein. A general purpose processor may be a microprocessor, but in the alternative, the processor may be any conventional processor, controller, microcontroller, or state machine. The processor may also be implemented as a combination of computing devices, such as a combination of a DSP and a microprocessor, multiple microprocessors, one or more microprocessors in conjunction with a DSP core, or any other such configuration.

[0185] The methods, sequences, and / or algorithms described in connection with the aspects disclosed herein may be embodied directly in hardware, in a software module executed by a processor, or in a combination of both. The software module may reside in random access memory (RAM), flash memory, read only memory (ROM), erasable programmable ROM (EPROM), electrically erasable programmable ROM (EEPROM), registers, a hard disk, a removable disk, a CD-ROM, or any other form of storage medium known in the art. An example storage medium is coupled to the processor such that the processor can read information from, and write information to, the storage medium. In the alternative, the storage medium may be integral to the processor. The processor and the storage medium may reside in an ASIC. The ASIC may reside in a user terminal (e.g., a UE). In the alternative, the processor and the storage medium may reside as discrete components in a user terminal.

[0186] In one or more example aspects, the functionality may be implemented in hardware, software, firmware, or any combination thereof. If implemented in software, the functionality may be stored on or transmitted via a computer-readable medium as one or more instructions or code. Computer-readable media includes both computer storage media and communication media including any medium that facilitates transfer of a computer program from one place to another. The storage media may be any available media that can be accessed by a computer. By way of example, and not limitation, such computer-readable media can include RAM, ROM, EEPROM, CD-ROM or other optical disk storage, magnetic disk storage or other magnetic storage devices, or any other medium that can be used to carry or store desired program code in the form of instructions or data structures and that can be accessed by a computer. Additionally, any connection is properly termed a computer-readable medium. For example, if the software is transmitted from a website, server, or other remote source using a coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave, then the coaxial cable, fiber optic cable, twisted pair, DSL, or wireless technologies such as infrared, radio, and microwave are included in the definition of medium. As used herein, disk and disc include compact disc (CD), laser disc, optical disc, digital versatile disc (DVD), floppy disk, and Blu-ray disc where disks typically reproduce data magnetically, while discs reproduce data optically using lasers. Combinations of the above should also be included within the scope of computer-readable media.

[0187] While the foregoing disclosure illustrates example aspects of the present disclosure, it should be noted that various changes and modifications can be made herein without departing from the scope of the present disclosure as defined by the appended claims. Additionally, the functions, steps, and / or acts of the method claims according to aspects of the present disclosure described herein need not be performed in any particular order. Further, although elements of the present disclosure may be described or claimed in the singular, the plural is also contemplated unless expressly stated to be limited to the singular.

Claims

1. A method of traffic flow control performed by an on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the method comprising: Determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and Reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

2. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: Receiving, via V2V communication, at least one notification from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

3. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: Receiving, via V2X communication, at least one notification from roadside infrastructure associated with the intersection, the notification indicating that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection.

4. The method according to claim 3, wherein the at least one notification is relayed from at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow.

5. The method according to claim 1, wherein determining that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection comprises: Detecting the primary traffic flow based on the sensor data from the one or more sensors of the vehicle.

6. The method according to claim 1, wherein the one or more sensors of the vehicle comprise: One or more cameras, Radar, LiDAR, or Any combination thereof.

7. The method according to claim 1, wherein the primary traffic flow is determined to be the primary traffic flow based on the following factors: The number of vehicles in the primary traffic flow is greater than a threshold, The priority of at least one vehicle in the primary traffic flow is greater than the priority of the vehicle, or Any combination thereof.

8. The method according to claim 1, wherein reducing the speed of the vehicle comprises: Stopping the vehicle before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor; Or Reducing the speed of the vehicle to a reduced speed before the vehicle reaches the traffic light sensor, wherein the reduced speed is selected to prevent the vehicle from stopping and to prevent triggering the traffic light sensor before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

9. The method according to claim 1, wherein the position of the traffic light sensor is determined based on the following factors: The geographical coordinates of the position of the traffic light sensor, A visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor, Map data indicating the position of the traffic light sensor, A database of the positions of traffic light sensors, or Any combination thereof.

10. The method according to claim 9, wherein the visual indication of the position of the traffic light sensor comprises: A marking on the road surface at the location of the traffic light sensor A sign at the location of the traffic light sensor The traffic light sensor, or Any combination thereof.

11. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: Determining that the vehicle is a leading vehicle in the secondary traffic flow, wherein the determination that the vehicle is the leading vehicle is based on second sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication with one or more other vehicles in the secondary traffic flow, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication with infrastructure associated with the intersection, or any combination thereof.

12. The method according to claim 11, the method further comprising: Determining that a second vehicle is a second leading vehicle in a different lane of the secondary traffic flow; And Coordinating with the second vehicle to reduce the speed of the second vehicle so as to prevent the second vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

13. The method according to claim 12, wherein coordinating with the second vehicle includes: Sending one or more notifications to the second vehicle via V2V signaling; Sending the one or more notifications to the second vehicle via roadside infrastructure via V2X signaling; Flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; or A combination thereof.

14. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: Signaling to any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

15. The method according to claim 14, wherein the signaling includes: Sending one or more notifications; Flashing the lights of the vehicle according to a pattern; Or A combination thereof.

16. The method according to claim 1, the method further comprising: Receiving an override command to prevent the vehicle from reducing the speed of the vehicle.

17. The method according to claim 16, wherein: Receiving the override command from the driver of the vehicle, or Receiving the override command based on determining that the vehicle is a high-priority vehicle.

18. An on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: A memory; At least one transceiver; And At least one processor communicatively coupled to the memory and the at least one transceiver, the at least one processor configured to: Determine that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and Reduce the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

19. The OBC according to claim 18, wherein the at least one processor is further configured to: Signal any vehicle behind the vehicle that the vehicle is reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering the traffic light sensor.

20. An on-board computer (OBC) of a vehicle in a secondary traffic flow, the on-board computer (OBC) comprising: Components for the following operations: determining that a primary traffic flow is passing through an intersection associated with a traffic light, wherein the determination that the primary traffic flow is passing through the intersection is based on sensor data from one or more sensors of the vehicle, vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) communication, vehicle-to-everything (V2X) communication, or any combination thereof; and Components for the following operations: reducing the speed of the vehicle to prevent the vehicle from triggering a traffic light sensor associated with the traffic light before the primary traffic flow has passed through the intersection.

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