The objective of this study was to identify the risks associated with the failure of autonomous vehicles in mixed traffic streams and develop strategies to minimize these risks.

Three distinct and interconnected phases were used to conduct the risk analysis; i) risk identification, ii) risk estimation and iii) evaluation. To identify the risks, the autonomous vehicle system was first disintegrated into vehicular components (i.e., sensors, actuators and communication platforms). Because an autonomous vehicle will share the roadways with human drivers for many years after their deployment, transportation infrastructure components play an important role in the final risk analysis.