A method includes monitoring, at a computing device, outputs of a sensor validator. Each output is generated by the sensor validator based on corresponding sensor data from a sensor coupled to an autonomous vehicle, and each output indicates whether the corresponding sensor data is associated with an event. The method also includes mutating, at the computing device, particular sensor data to generate mutated sensor data that is associated with a particular event. The method further includes determining, at the computing device, a performance metric associated with the sensor validator based on a particular output generated by the sensor validator. The particular output is based on the mutated sensor data.