COMPUTING AGENT RESPONSE TIMES IN TRAFFIC SCENARIOS

This specification describes techniques for a system configured to measure and model the response times of agents in a driving environment. There is provided a computer-implemented method comprising: receiving a request to compute a predicted response time to the onset of a stimulus for an agent in a scenario in a traffic environment; continually updating, at each time step of a plurality of time steps, an accumulated measure of surprise for the agent due to the movements of another entity in the traffic environment, including performing, at each time step, operations comprising: obtaining, using a generative model, a distribution of previously predicted trajectories at a previous time step for the other entity in the environment, computing, using an updated state of the other entity, a measure of surprise for the time step from the perspective of the agent including comparing the updated state of the other entity to the distribution of previously predicted trajectories at the previous time step for the other entity, and updating the accumulated measure of surprise for the time step using the computed measure of surprise for the agent; determining that an accumulated measure of surprise crosses a threshold at a particular point in time; and in response, generating a predicted response time for the agent based on the particular point in time that the accumulated measure of surprise crosses the threshold.