Systems and methods for characterizing road segment difficulty

1 . A routing system for improving vehicle control in relation to curved roadways, comprising:

one or more processors;

a memory communicably coupled to the one or more processors and storing instructions that when executed by the one or more processors cause the one or more processors to:

in response to determining a route for a vehicle that is represented using points for navigating to a destination, identify one or more curves along the route according to proximities of the points, including instructions to generate point densities of the points for segments of the route, the segments being divisions of the route that each include a portion of the points;

generate, based on the point densities, difficulty indicators for curved segments of the segments that include the one or more curves, including instructions to determine a severity of the one or more curves in relation to characteristics of associated ones of the segments; and

provide the difficulty indicators to a module of the vehicle as the vehicle encounters the segments that include the one or more curves to adjust a trajectory of the vehicle in relation to the one or more curves.

2 . The routing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to identify the one or more curves include instructions to:

analyze proximities of the points over segments of the route to generate the point densities for the segments; and

determine a presence of the one or more curves along the route according to whether the point densities satisfy a proximity threshold indicating a respective one of the point densities correlate with a presence of a curve.

3 . The routing system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions to analyze the proximities include instructions to define the segments according to a road type, and an expected speed of the vehicle along separate portions of the route by individually defining lengths of the segments.

4 . The routing system of claim 2 , wherein the instructions to determine the presence of the one or more curves include instructions to separately determine the proximity threshold for the segments according to characteristics of the segments.

5 . The routing system of claim 1 , further comprising instructions to:

receive route information that includes at least a starting point and an end point for navigating the vehicle; and

calculate the route for the vehicle to follow according to the route information, wherein the route is comprised of the points in a series at variable spacing to accurately represent geometries of the route using discrete information in a form of the points.

6 . The routing system of claim 1 , wherein the instructions to provide the difficulty indicators include instructions to control one or more systems of the vehicle to perform at least one of: alerting a driver, and generating a visible alert within a display of the vehicle.

7 . The routing system of claim 1 , wherein the vehicle is an autonomous vehicle that navigates the route autonomously.

8 . A non-transitory computer-readable medium storing instructions for improving vehicle control in relation to curved roadways and that, when executed by one or more processors, cause the one or more processors to:

in response to determining a route for a vehicle that is represented using points for navigating to a destination, identify one or more curves along the route according to proximities of the points, including instructions to generate point densities of the points for segments of the route, the segments being divisions of the route that each include a portion of the points;

generate, based on the point densities, difficulty indicators for curved segments of the segments that include the one or more curves, including instructions to determine a severity of the one or more curves in relation to characteristics of associated ones of the segments; and

provide the difficulty indicators to a module of the vehicle as the vehicle encounters the segments that include the one or more curves to adjust a trajectory of the vehicle in relation to the one or more curves.

9 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions to identify the one or more curves include instructions to:

analyze proximities of the points over the segments of the route to generate the point densities for the segments; and

determine a presence of the one or more curves along the route according to whether the point densities satisfy a proximity threshold indicating the point densities correlate with a presence of a curve.

10 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to analyze the proximities include instructions to define the segments according to a road type, and an expected speed of the vehicle along separate portions of the route by individually defining a length of the segments.

11 . The non-transitory computer-readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the instructions to determine the presence of the one or more curves include instructions to separately determine the proximity threshold for the segments according to characteristics of the segments.

12 . A method, comprising:

in response to determining a route for a vehicle that is represented using points for navigating to a destination, identifying one or more curves along the route according to proximities of the points, including generating point densities of the points for segments of the route, the segments being divisions of the route that each include a portion of the points;

generating, based on the point densities, difficulty indicators for curved segments of the segments that include the one or more curves, including determining a severity of the one or more curves in relation to characteristics of associated ones of the segments; and

providing the difficulty indicators to a module of the vehicle as the vehicle encounters the segments that include the one or more curves to adjust a trajectory of the vehicle in relation to the one or more curves.

13 . The method of claim 12 , wherein identifying the one or more curves includes:

analyzing proximities of the points over the segments of the route to generate the point densities for the segments; and

determining a presence of the one or more curves along the route according to whether the point densities satisfy a proximity threshold indicating the point densities correlate with a presence of a curve.

14 . The method of claim 13 , wherein analyzing the proximities includes defining the segments according to a road type, and an expected speed of the vehicle along separate portions of the route by individually defining a length of the segments.

15 . The method of claim 13 , wherein determining the presence of the one or more curves includes separately determining the proximity threshold for the segments according to characteristics of the segments.

16 . The method of claim 12 , further comprising:

receiving route information that includes at least a starting point and an end point for navigating the vehicle; and

calculating the route for the vehicle to follow according to the route information, wherein the route is comprised of the points in a series at variable spacing to accurately represent geometries of the route using discrete information in a form of the points.

17 . The method of claim 12 , wherein providing the difficulty indicators includes controlling one or more systems of the vehicle to perform at least one of: alerting a driver, and generating a visible alert within a display of the vehicle.