Autonomy at Scale: Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) v. Early Commitment in Autonomous Driving

Read our white paper to learn about how our unique Multi-Policy Decision Making (MPDM) software works and how it compares to other autonomous driving approaches.

Most approaches to autonomous driving use some form of early commitment to make their decisions. Early commitment means that the logic used to make driving decisions is fixed and determined in advance of actually encountering a scenario.

Early commitment is reactive. Driving is frequently reactive, so this type of decision-making often works, especially in common situations. For example, drivers use early commitment to respond to a red light ahead. We know from driver’s training and experience that we should stop in front of a red light and not proceed through until it changes to green. We don’t need to think about it; our reaction to the light is “hardwired.” We can even be doing another task, such as talking with the passenger next to us, and still respond correctly.

The simplicity and applicability of this approach to driving makes early commitment the first and often the only approach engineers take to making a car drive itself. Early commitment is typically implemented in two ways:

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