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When the Score Becomes the Target: Rethinking Metric Validity in Autonomous Driving

September 2026 Morui Zhu, Deyuan Qu, Qi Chen, Kentaro Oguchi, Qing Yang arXiv preprint arXiv:2609.34440, 2026 (under review)
#Autonomous Driving #Evaluation #Benchmark

When benchmark scores become optimization targets, do score improvements still indicate better driving? Through controlled experiments on driving benchmarks, we show that substantial behavioral changes can receive minimal score response, and that optimization gains can reverse under different execution conditions — metric validity depends both on what is measured and on how optimized behavior is executed.