SENSOR AND ENVIRONMENTAL EVALUATION FOR VEHICLES

Aspects of the disclosure provide for controlling behaviors of autonomous vehicles based on evaluation of sensors of those vehicles. For instance, sensor data including distance and intensity information for a point in an environment of an autonomous vehicle may be received. An expected intensity value from a pre-stored fair weather reference map may be identified based on a location of the point. An effective detection range for the sensor may be dynamically determined based on the expected intensity and the intensity information for the point. A behavior of the autonomous vehicle may be controlled based on the effective detection range.