Rendering a situational-awareness view in an autonomous-vehicle environment

1. A method comprising, by one or more computing devices:

receiving first sensor data from a sensor array of a vehicle while traveling on a road, wherein the first sensor data is associated with a distance between the vehicle and an object along the road in an environment external of the vehicle;

determining a confidence score for a classification of the object based on the first sensor data associated with the distance between the object and the vehicle;

determining a level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a first object graphic based on the determined confidence score for the classification of the object;

providing for display a visual representation of the first object graphic rendered at the level of visual detail and a road graphic associated with the road;

subsequent to providing for display the visual representation of the first object graphic and the road graphic, adjusting the confidence score for the classification of the object based on second sensor data, received from the sensor array of the vehicle, that is associated with a second distance between the object and the vehicle;

adjusting the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a second object graphic based on the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object; and

providing for display a visual representation of the second object graphic rendered at the adjusted level of visual detail and the road graphic associated with the road.

2. The method of claim 1 , wherein determining the confidence score for the classification of the object comprises:

comparing the received first sensor data with a pre-determined pattern that corresponds to the classification; and

determining a difference between the pre-determined pattern and the received first sensor data.

3. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first object graphic and the second object graphic share one or more features representative of the object.

4. The method of claim 3 , wherein

wherein the second object graphic has more features representative of the object than the first object graphic.

5. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor data or the second sensor data comprises a list of coordinate points corresponding to one or more objects within a threshold distance of the vehicle.

6. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, based on the determined confidence score and the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object, a first opacity for the first object graphic and a second opacity for the second object graphic, respectively.

7. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor data or the second sensor data comprises:

a labeled point set corresponding to each object represented by an object graphic; and

a confidence score for the labeled point set.

8. The method of claim 1 , wherein the adjusted confidence score is greater than the determined confidence score.

9. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first sensor data or the second sensor data further indicates a plurality of additional objects in the environment external of the vehicle and is associated with a distance between the vehicle and each additional object of the plurality of additional objects, wherein the method further comprises:

determining, for each additional object of the plurality of additional objects, a level of visual detail to visually represent the additional object based on a determined distance between the object and the vehicle; and

selecting an object graphic for each additional object of the plurality of additional objects, wherein a first additional object closer to the vehicle is represented by an object graphic that has a higher level of visual detail than an object graphic representing a second additional object farther from the vehicle.

10. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

based on the second sensor data, determining that the object is moving; and

providing instructions to render the visual representation of the second object graphic with a graphical indication that the object is moving.

11. The method of claim 1 , wherein at least some of the first sensor data or the second sensor data is generated by one or more sensors of the vehicle.

12. The method of claim 1 , wherein the method further comprises:

determining, based on the first sensor data or the second sensor data, an overlay graphic that provides information associated with one or more of a state of the vehicle, a current ride of the vehicle, a current passenger of the vehicle, or a current route of the vehicle,

wherein the visual representation provided for display further comprises the overlay graphic.

13. A system comprising: one or more processors and one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media coupled to one or more of the processors, the one or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media comprising instructions operable when executed by the one or more processors to cause the system to perform operations comprising:

receiving first sensor data from a sensor array of a vehicle while traveling on a road, wherein the first sensor data is associated with a distance between the vehicle and an object along the road and in an environment external of the vehicle;

determining a confidence score for a classification of the object based on the first sensor data associated with the distance between the object and the vehicle;

determining a level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a first object graphic based on the determined confidence score for the classification of the object;

providing for display a visual representation of the first object graphic rendered at the level of visual detail and a road graphic associated with the road;

subsequent to providing for display the visual representation of the first object graphic and the road graphic, adjusting the confidence score for the classification of the object based on second sensor data, received from the sensor array of the vehicle, that is associated with a second distance between the object and the vehicle;

adjusting the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a second object graphic based on the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object; and

providing for display a visual representation of the second object graphic rendered at the adjusted level of visual detail and the road graphic associated with the road.

14. The system of claim 13 , wherein determining the confidence score for the classification of the object comprises:

comparing the received first sensor data with a pre-determined pattern that corresponds to the classification; and

determining a difference between the pre-determined pattern and the received first sensor data.

15. One or more computer-readable non-transitory storage media including instructions that, when executed by one or more processors, are configured to cause the one or more processors to perform operations comprising:

receiving first sensor data from a sensor array of a vehicle while traveling on a road, wherein the first sensor data is associated with a distance between the vehicle and an object along the road in an environment external of the vehicle;

determining a confidence score for a classification of the object based on the first sensor data associated with the distance between the object and the vehicle;

determining a level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a first object graphic based on the determined confidence score for the classification of the object;

providing for display a visual representation of the first object graphic rendered at the level of visual detail and a road graphic associated with the road;

subsequent to providing for display the visual representation of the first object graphic and the road graphic, adjusting the confidence score for the classification of the object based on second sensor data, received from the sensor array of the vehicle, that is associated with a second distance between the object and the vehicle;

adjusting the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a second object graphic based on the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object; and

providing for display a visual representation of the second object graphic rendered at the adjusted level of visual detail and the road graphic associated with the road.

16. The computer-readable non-transitory storage media of claim 15 , wherein determining the confidence score for the classification of the object comprises:

comparing the received first sensor data with a pre-determined pattern that corresponds to the classification; and

determining a difference between the pre-determined pattern and the received first sensor data.

17. The method of claim 1 , wherein the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a first object graphic is associated with a plurality of levels of visual detail, each level of visual detail being associated with a threshold score; and

wherein determining the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a first object graphic based on the determined confidence score for the classification of the object comprises:

determining that the confidence score for the classification satisfies a particular threshold score; and

identifying the level of visual detail associated with the particular threshold score.

18. The method of claim 1 , wherein adjusting the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as a second object graphic based on the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object comprises:

increasing the level of visual detail to visually represent the object based on determining that the adjusted confidence score for the classification of the object is greater than the determined confidence score for the classification of the object.

19. The method of claim 1 , wherein the first object graphic and the second object graphic are computer-generated graphical representations of the object.

20. The method of claim 1 , further comprising:

determining, based on the first sensor data, movement of the object relative to the vehicle,

wherein determining the level of visual detail to visually represent the object as the first object graphic is further based on the determined movement of the object relative to the vehicle while the vehicle is traveling on the road.