# Lane Graph as Path: Continuity-preserving Path-wise Modeling for Online Lane Graph Construction

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.08815 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08815/

## Key facts

- Cited by 50 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 38 of its 57 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 15 Mar 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 38)

- [Deep Residual Learning for Image Recognition](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1512.03385/) (2015)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)
- [End-to-End Object Detection with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.12872/) (2020)
- [SGDR: Stochastic Gradient Descent with Warm Restarts](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.03983/) (2016)
- [nuScenes: A multimodal dataset for autonomous driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1903.11027/) (2019)
- [Deformable DETR: Deformable Transformers for End-to-End Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.04159/) (2020)
- [BEVFormer: Learning Bird's-Eye-View Representation from Multi-Camera Images via Spatiotemporal Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.17270/) (2022)
- [BEVFusion: Multi-Task Multi-Sensor Fusion with Unified Bird's-Eye View Representation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.13542/) (2022)
- [Argoverse 2: Next Generation Datasets for Self-Driving Perception and Forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2301.00493/) (2023)
- [PETRv2: A Unified Framework for 3D Perception from Multi-Camera Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.01256/) (2022)
- [MapTR: Structured Modeling and Learning for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.14437/) (2022)
- [HDMapNet: An Online HD Map Construction and Evaluation Framework](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2107.06307/) (2021)
- [Cross-view Transformers for real-time Map-view Semantic Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2205.02833/) (2022)
- [VectorMapNet: End-to-end Vectorized HD Map Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.08920/) (2022)
- [You Only Look at One Sequence: Rethinking Transformer in Vision through Object Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.00666/) (2021)
- [PersFormer: 3D Lane Detection via Perspective Transformer and the OpenLane Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.11089/) (2022)
- [Keep your Eyes on the Lane: Real-time Attention-guided Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2010.12035/) (2020)
- [Vision-Centric BEV Perception: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2208.02797/) (2022)
- [End-to-end Lane Shape Prediction with Transformers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.04233/) (2020)
- [3D-LaneNet: End-to-End 3D Multiple Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1811.10203/) (2018)
- [RoadTracer: Automatic Extraction of Road Networks from Aerial Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1802.03680/) (2018)
- [Structured Bird's-Eye-View Traffic Scene Understanding from Onboard Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2110.01997/) (2021)
- [Rethinking Efficient Lane Detection via Curve Modeling](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02431/) (2022)
- [Efficient and Robust 2D-to-BEV Representation Learning via Geometry-guided Kernel Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04584/) (2022)
- [Gen-LaneNet: A Generalized and Scalable Approach for 3D Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2003.10656/) (2020)
- [A Keypoint-based Global Association Network for Lane Detection](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.07335/) (2022)
- [Topological Map Extraction from Overhead Images](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.01497/) (2018)
- [Sat2Graph: Road Graph Extraction through Graph-Tensor Encoding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2007.09547/) (2020)
- [Learning Ego 3D Representation as Ray Tracing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.04042/) (2022)
- [HDMapGen: A Hierarchical Graph Generative Model of High Definition Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2106.14880/) (2021)

## Built on by (most cited first, 30 of 50)

- [VAD: Vectorized Scene Representation for Efficient Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.12077/) (2023)
- [VADv2: End-to-End Vectorized Autonomous Driving via Probabilistic Planning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.13243/) (2024)
- [EMMA: End-to-End Multimodal Model for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.23262/) (2024)
- [MapTRv2: An End-to-End Framework for Online Vectorized HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2308.05736/) (2023)
- [RAD: Training an End-to-End Driving Policy via Large-Scale 3DGS-based Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.13144/) (2025)
- [Augmenting Lane Perception and Topology Understanding with Standard Definition Navigation Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.04079/) (2023)
- [LaneSegNet: Map Learning with Lane Segment Perception for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16108/) (2023)
- [Graph-based Topology Reasoning for Driving Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.05277/) (2023)
- [P-MapNet: Far-seeing Map Generator Enhanced by both SDMap and HDMap Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2403.10521/) (2024)
- [TopoMLP: A Simple yet Strong Pipeline for Driving Topology Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.06753/) (2023)
- [T2SG: Traffic Topology Scene Graph for Topology Reasoning in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.18894/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Vectorized Map Perception with Historical Rasterized Maps](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.00620/) (2024)
- [DriveSceneGen: Generating Diverse and Realistic Driving Scenarios from Scratch](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.14685/) (2023)
- [RoadPainter: Points Are Ideal Navigators for Topology transformER](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.15349/) (2024)
- [TopoSD: Topology-Enhanced Lane Segment Perception with SDMap Prior](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.14751/) (2024)
- [VMA: Divide-and-Conquer Vectorized Map Annotation System for Large-Scale Driving Scene](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2304.09807/) (2023)
- [SeqGrowGraph: Learning Lane Topology as a Chain of Graph Expansions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04822/) (2025)
- [Topo2Seq: Enhanced Topology Reasoning via Topology Sequence Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.08974/) (2025)
- [TopoPoint: Enhance Topology Reasoning via Endpoint Detection in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.17771/) (2025)
- [Reusing Attention for One-stage Lane Topology Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.17617/) (2025)
- [SDTagNet: Leveraging Text-Annotated Navigation Maps for Online HD Map Construction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.08997/) (2025)
- [A Vision-Centric Approach for Static Map Element Annotation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.11754/) (2023)
- [LaneGraph2Seq: Lane Topology Extraction with Language Model via Vertex-Edge Encoding and Connectivity Enhancement](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.17609/) (2024)
- [TopoMaskV2: Enhanced Instance-Mask-Based Formulation for the Road Topology Problem](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2409.11325/) (2024)
- [Fully Unified Motion Planning for End-to-End Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.12667/) (2025)
- [LaneDiffusion: Improving Centerline Graph Learning via Prior Injected BEV Feature Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06272/) (2025)
- [TopoMask: Instance-Mask-Based Formulation for the Road Topology Problem via Transformer-Based Architecture](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.05419/) (2023)
- [Continuity Preserving Online CenterLine Graph Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2407.11337/) (2024)
- [Enhancing Lane Segment Perception and Topology Reasoning with Crowdsourcing Trajectory Priors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2411.17161/) (2024)
- [TopoBDA: Towards Bezier Deformable Attention for Road Topology Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2412.18951/) (2024)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Online lane graph construction is a promising but challenging task in autonomous driving. Previous methods usually model the lane graph at the pixel or piece level, and recover the lane graph by pixel-wise or piece-wise connection, which breaks down the continuity of the lane and results in suboptimal performance. Human drivers focus on and drive along the continuous and complete paths instead of considering lane pieces. Autonomous vehicles also require path-specific guidance from lane graph for trajectory planning. We argue that the path, which indicates the traffic flow, is the primitive of the lane graph. Motivated by this, we propose to model the lane graph in a novel path-wise manner, which well preserves the continuity of the lane and encodes traffic information for planning. We present a path-based online lane graph construction method, termed LaneGAP, which end-to-end learns the path and recovers the lane graph via a Path2Graph algorithm. We qualitatively and quantitatively demonstrate the superior accuracy and efficiency of LaneGAP over conventional pixel-based and piece-based methods on the challenging nuScenes and Argoverse2 datasets under controllable and fair conditions. Compared to the recent state-of-the-art piece-wise method TopoNet on the OpenLane-V2 dataset, LaneGAP still outperforms by 1.6 mIoU, further validating the effectiveness of path-wise modeling. Abundant visualizations in the supplementary material show LaneGAP can cope with diverse traffic conditions. Code is released at urlhttps://github.com/hustvl/LaneGAP.