VERIFYING AUTHORIZED PERSONNEL FOR INTERACTION WITH AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

An autonomous vehicle (AV) uses an authentication system to verify that a person on the street attempting to control behavior of the AV is authorized to do so. An authorized person (e.g., a construction worker or a police officer) has an associated beacon that provides a beacon signal, such as a visual symbol or wireless signal. The AV perceives the beacon signal and transmits it to the authentication system. The authentication system looks up the beacon signal in a database and retrieves conditions associated with the beacon signal. If the authentication system and/or AV confirms that the beacon signal is in the database, and the conditions under which the person associated with the beacon signal is authorized to control the AV are met, the AV follows instructions from the person.