Method to estimate processing rate requirement for safe AV driving to prioritize resource usage

An estimation model utilizes simulations of an autonomous vehicle and objects detected near the automated vehicle to develop estimates of tolerable frame processing latency to develop real world frame processing latency estimates for similar driving conditions. An estimation model can a minimum tolerable latency for processing the frames of image data of an object detection camera on an autonomous vehicle using the object state data of the objects detected near the autonomous vehicle. An autonomous vehicle system process can determine if the processing latency of a sensor is greater than the modeled tolerable latency for that sensor, then a safety check is failed and an alert is sent. An autonomous vehicle system process can determine if the processing latency of a sensor is greater than the modeled tolerable latency for that sensor, then the hardware resources are prioritized to the processing for that sensor. An autonomous vehicle system process can determine if the processing latency of a sensor is greater than the modeled tolerable latency for that sensor, hardware performance may be increased.