EARLY BOARDING OF PASSENGERS IN AUTONOMOUS VEHICLES

The technology relates to actively looking for an assigned passenger prior to a vehicle reaching a pickup location. For instance, information identifying the pickup location and client device information for authenticating the assigned passenger is received. Sensor data is received from a perception system () of the vehicle identifying objects in an environment of the vehicle. When the vehicle is within a predetermined distance (represented by distance bar ) from the pickup location (represented by marker ), authenticating a client device () using the client device information is attempted. When the client device has been authenticated, the sensor data is used to determine whether a pedestrian () is within a first threshold distance (D) of the vehicle. When a pedestrian () is determined to be within the first threshold distance of the vehicle, the vehicle is stopped prior to reaching the pickup location, to wait for the pedestrian within the first threshold distance of the vehicle to enter the vehicle.