LANE EXTENSION FOR VISION STEERED AUTOMATED VEHICLE

A lane-extension system (10) suitable for use on an automated vehicle includes a camera (26), a location-device (38), and a controller (24). The camera (26) is used to capture an image (28) of a roadway (30) traveled by a host-vehicle (12). The location-device (38) is used to determine a location (42) of the host-vehicle (12) on a digital-map (40). The controller (24) is in communication with the camera (26) and the location-device (38). The controller (24) is configured to determine a vision-path (44) based on a lane-marking (32) of the roadway (30) detected in the image (28), operate the host-vehicle (12) in accordance with the vision-path (44) when the vision-path (44) does correspond to the digital-map (40), and operate the host-vehicle (12) in accordance with a present-trajectory (50) previously defined by the vision-path (44) when the vision-path (44) does not correspond to the digital-map (40). Operation of the host-vehicle (12) by the system (10) in accordance with the present-trajectory (50) is done without reference to the digital-map (40).