Systems and methods for navigating with safe distances

Systems and methods are provided for vehicle navigation. In one implementation, a system may comprise an interface to obtain sensing data of an environment of the host vehicle. A processing device may be configured to determine a planned navigational action for the host vehicle; identify a target vehicle in the environment of the host vehicle; predict a resulting distance between the host and target vehicles if the planned action were taken; determine a host vehicle stopping distance based on a braking rate, maximum acceleration capability, and current speed of the host vehicle; determine a target vehicle stopping distance based on a braking rate and current speed of the target vehicle; and continue with the planned navigational action while the predicted distance is greater than a minimum safe longitudinal distance calculated based on the host vehicle stopping distance and the target vehicle stopping distance.