AI0-001 AI Concepts and Foundations Practice Question
An AI system for autonomous vehicles uses reinforcement learning (RL) to navigate. The reward function encourages reaching the destination quickly but penalizes collisions heavily. The agent learns to drive aggressively, causing minor accidents. Which modification to the reward function would best align the agent's behavior with desired safe driving?
⚠ Common exam trap
CompTIA often tests the misconception that simply increasing the penalty for collisions (option A) is sufficient to ensure safe driving, when in reality it can lead to reward hacking or overly conservative policies, and the correct solution requires shaping the reward to penalize the specific unsafe behaviors (e.g., high acceleration) that cause accidents.
Answer choices
Why each option matters
Answer the question above first, then reveal the full breakdown to understand why each option is right or wrong.
Correct answer & explanation
✓
Add a penalty term for high acceleration and jerky movements.
Adding a penalty for high acceleration and jerky movements directly addresses the root cause of the aggressive driving behavior—smoothness and safety—without undermining the primary goal of reaching the destination. This modification shapes the reward function to penalize unsafe driving patterns, aligning the agent's learned policy with desired safe navigation while preserving the time-based incentive for efficiency.
Answer analysis
Option-by-option breakdown
For each option: why learners choose it and why it is or isn't the right answer here.
- ✗
Increase the collision penalty to a very large negative value.
Why it's wrong here
Collision penalty may still allow aggressive driving that avoids collisions but causes near-misses.
- ✗
Remove the time-based reward and only reward reaching the destination.
Why it's wrong here
Removing time incentive may make the agent very slow but not necessarily safe.
- ✗
Use a potential-based reward shaping to encourage progress toward destination.
Why it's wrong here
Reward shaping may help but does not specifically address aggressive driving.
- ✓
Add a penalty term for high acceleration and jerky movements.
Why this is correct
Penalizing aggressive actions directly encourages smooth driving.
About these practice questions
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Written by Johnson Ajibi, MSc IT Security
Senior Network & Security Engineer · founder of Courseiva
This AI0-001 practice question is part of Courseiva's free CompTIA certification practice question bank. Courseiva provides original exam-style practice questions with explanations, topic-based practice, mock exams, readiness tracking, and study analytics to help learners prepare for the AI0-001 exam.