LANE BASED ROUTING SYSTEM FOR AUTONOMOUS DRIVING VEHICLES

Embodiments disclose systems and methods to generate a lane-based reference line for an autonomous driving vehicle. In one embodiment, a system receives a request to route an autonomous driving vehicle (ADV) from a source location to a target location. In response to the request, the system identifies a set of road segments between the source location and the target location navigable by the ADV, where each of the road segments in the set includes one or more lane segments. The system identifies one or more lane paths corresponding to the set of road segments. The system determines an effective distance for each of the one or more lane paths. The system selects a lane path based on the determined effective distance. The system generates a lane-based reference line based on the selected lane path.