Described is a system for classifying objects and scenes in images. The system identifies salient regions of an image based on activation patterns of a convolutional neural network (CNN). Multi-scale features for the salient regions are generated by probing the activation patterns of the CNN at different layers. Using an unsupervised clustering technique, the multi-scale features are clustered to identify key attributes captured by the CNN. The system maps from a histogram of the key attributes onto probabilities for a set of object categories. Using the probabilities, an object or scene in the image is classified as belonging to an object category, and a vehicle component is controlled based on the object category causing the vehicle component to perform an automated action.