SYSTEMS, PROGRAM PRODUCTS, AND METHODS FOR DETERMINING VIABLE MERGING SEGMENTS FOR AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES USING A NEURAL NETWORK MODEL

An autonomous vehicle includes sensor(s) configured to acquire sensor data of an environment surrounding the autonomous vehicle, where the autonomous vehicle operates within the environment. The autonomous vehicle also includes an autonomy computing system including a processor(s) programmed to divide lanes in the environment into segments of a predetermined longitudinal length and determine attributes of at least one of the segments. The processor(s) also analyzes, using a neural network model, the segments and attributes associated with the segments, where the neural network model is configured to receive input segments represented with the attributes as inputs and output a viable segment among the input segments to merge into. Furthermore, the processor(s) determines a viable segment among the segments to merge the autonomous vehicle into, based on the analysis, and controls operation of the autonomous vehicle based on the viable segment.