Systems, methods, and other embodiments for determining whether a vehicle is capable of navigating an intersection in an autonomous driving mode are disclosed. One embodiment detects that a vehicle traveling on a first roadway is approaching an intersection of the first roadway with a second roadway; detects, during one or more layer drives, one or more moving objects traveling on the second roadway; estimates the profile of each of one or more sensor obstructions situated in a non-roadway region abutting the intersection based on the detected one or more moving objects; combines, for each sensor obstruction, the profile estimates obtained from one or more layer drives to produce a composite estimate of the profile of that sensor obstruction; and determines, based at least in part on one or more composite profile estimates, whether navigating the intersection in an autonomous driving mode of the vehicle is achievable.