Risk analysis of autonomous vehicle test scenarios using a novel analytic hierarchy process method

Abstract Scenario‐based test methods are employed to assess the safety and performance of autonomous vehicles. The analytic hierarchy process (AHP) method is a common assessment method for determining the criticality of test scenarios. However, the AHP method is subjective and less reproducible when performed by different persons, as the elements of pairwise comparison values that are directly linked to the outcome must be assigned by the person involved. This paper proposes a novel AHP method that automatically generates pairwise comparison values by optimizing the correlation between performance metrics and risk of test scenarios by simulation. Performance metrics are defined as the minimum relative distances and corresponding relative velocities between vehicles, and the risk of the test scenario is determined by the pairwise comparison values of AHP. The novel AHP method was evaluated using a cut‐in scenario. The results showed that the minimum relative distance and the risk determined by the novel AHP method achieved a better correlation coefficient of −0.96, which is better than the conventional AHP of −0.828 and Fuzzy AHP of −0.824. These results suggest that the criticality of the test scenarios determined by the novel AHP method can more accurately reflect real‐world driving environments.