Navigational constraints for autonomous vehicles

1. An autonomous vehicle comprising:

vehicle controls for propelling the autonomous vehicle;

one or more communication interfaces for wirelessly communicating with a remote computing system;

one or more processors;

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

access map data comprising travel ways within a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;

obtaining a travel route to a destination location;

receive, from the remote computing system, constraint data descriptive of a particular geographic area within the surrounding environment and a cost factor for navigating in the particular geographic area;

generate a plurality of candidate motion plans for traveling within the surrounding environment;

select, from the plurality of candidate motion plans, a motion plan for controlling the autonomous vehicle along the travel route, the motion plan selected using an optimization that considers the cost factor;

provide data indicative of the motion plan to a controller, wherein the controller is configured to translate the motion plan into control signals for at least one of a braking control component, a steering control component, or a speed control component and

autonomously operate the vehicle controls to propel the vehicle according to the selected motion plan.

2. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the cost factor is received in real time or near real time to account for an event encountered by the autonomous vehicle.

3. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the constraint data is obtained from a remote operator using the remote computing system.

4. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the cost factor corresponds to a portion of a travel way.

5. The autonomous vehicle of claim 4 , wherein the portion of the travel way is a lane.

6. The autonomous vehicle of claim 1 , wherein the operations comprise:

optimizing one or more variables of the motion plan using the cost factor.

7. The autonomous vehicle of claim 2 , wherein the cost factor is associated with a traffic accident or a construction zone.

8. A non-transitory computer readable medium storing instructions that, when executed by one or more processors of an autonomous vehicle, cause the one or more processors to:

access map data comprising travel ways within a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;

obtaining a travel route to a destination location;

receive, from a remote computing system, constraint data descriptive of a particular geographic area within the surrounding environment and a cost factor for navigating in the particular geographic area;

generate a plurality of candidate motion plans for traveling within the surrounding environment;

select, from the plurality of candidate motion plans, a motion plan for controlling the autonomous vehicle along the travel route, the motion plan selected using an optimization that considers the cost factor;

provide data indicative of the motion plan to a controller, wherein the controller is configured to translate the motion plan into control signals for at least one of a braking control component, a steering control component, or a speed control component and

autonomously operate the vehicle controls to propel the vehicle according to the selected motion plan.

9. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the cost factor is received in real time or near real time to account for an event encountered by the autonomous vehicle.

10. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the constraint data is obtained from a remote operator using the remote computing system.

11. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the cost factor corresponds to a portion of a travel way.

12. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 11 , wherein the portion of the travel way is a lane.

13. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 8 , wherein the instructions cause the one or more processors to:

optimize one or more variables of the motion plan using the cost factor.

14. The non-transitory computer readable medium of claim 9 , wherein the cost factor is associated with a traffic accident or a construction zone.

15. A computer-implemented method of operating an autonomous vehicle, the method being performed by one or more processors and comprising:

accessing map data comprising travel ways within a surrounding environment of the autonomous vehicle;

obtaining a travel route to a destination location;

receiving, from a remote computing system, constraint data descriptive of a particular geographic area within the surrounding environment and a cost factor for navigating in the particular geographic area;

generating a plurality of candidate motion plans for traveling within the surrounding environment;

selecting, from the plurality of candidate motion plans, a motion plan for controlling the autonomous vehicle along the travel route, the motion plan selected using an optimization that considers the cost factor;

provide data indicative of the motion plan to a controller, wherein the controller is configured to translate the motion plan into control signals for at least one of a braking control component, a steering control component, or a speed control component and

autonomously operating the vehicle controls to propel the vehicle according to the selected motion plan.

16. The method of claim 15 , wherein the cost factor is received in real time or near real time to account for an event encountered by the autonomous vehicle.

17. The method of claim 15 , wherein the cost factor corresponds to a portion of a travel way.

18. The method of claim 17 , wherein the portion of the travel way is a lane.

19. The method of claim 15 , comprising:

optimizing one or more variables of the motion plan using the cost factor.

20. The method of claim 16 , wherein the cost factor is associated with a traffic accident or a construction zone.