CONTINGENCY PLANNING AND SAFETY ASSURANCE

A method for contingency planning for an autonomous vehicle (AV) includes determining a nominal trajectory for the AV; detecting a hazard object that does not intrude into a path of the AV at a time of the detecting the hazard object; determining a hazard zone for the hazard object; determining a time of arrival of the AV at the hazard zone; determining a contingency trajectory for the AV; controlling the AV according to the contingency trajectory; and, in response to the hazard object intruding into the path of the AV, controlling the AV to perform a maneuver to avoid the hazard object. The contingency trajectory includes at least one of a lateral contingency or a longitudinal contingency. The contingency trajectory is determined using the time of arrival of the AV at the hazard zone.