The disclosure provides for a method of controlling one or more sensors on a moving vehicle that is executable by one or more computing devices. The one or more computing devices may detect a first surface at a first location and a second surface at a second location using the one or more sensors. The second surface may be classified as a target of interest. Then the one or more computing devices may determine one or more timing characteristics of the one or more sensors based on a pose or motion of the one or more sensors relative to the first location of the first surface and the second location of the second surface. Then, the one or more computing devices may control the one or more sensors to capture data according to the determined one or more timing characteristics.