1. A system for providing information for autonomous vehicle navigation, the system comprising: at least one laser scanner configured to perform one or more range and intensity scans of an area around the autonomous vehicle; a geo-location unit for the autonomous vehicle, the geo-location unit comprising one or more global positioning system sensors, and one or more inertial navigation system sensors; and at least one processor in operative communication with the laser scanner and the geo-location unit, the processor configured to execute one or more program modules comprising: a ground plane-based processing module configured to receive range scan data transformed into world coordinates, and output ground plane-based classification data; a range-based processing module configured to receive data from a single range scan, and output range-based classification data; an intensity-based processing module configured to receive intensity scan data, and output intensity-based classification data; and a classification fusion module configured to receive the classification data from each of the processing modules, and output range bin classification data.