Analyzing scenario criticality and rider’s intervention behavior during high-level autonomous driving: A VR-enabled approach and empirical insights

•Define and quantitatively assess the ‘criticality’ of driving scenarios within mixed traffic for high-level autonomous vehicles.•Identify and analyze the contributing factors to critical scenarios perceived by the ADS.•Carry out simulation and human-in-the-loop experiments for validation.•Provide behavioral insights to facilitate AV adoption.