Abstract: A system and method to confirm and mitigate a malfunction of a sensor used for adaptive cruise control (ACC) in a vehicle involve identifying the malfunction of the sensor. The method also includes determining a counter threshold value that defines a duration for which recovery of the sensor is awaited, and performing an iterative process to determine if the sensor has recovered. A number of iterations of the iterative process is determined by the counter threshold value. The method also includes confirming the malfunction of the sensor based on the number of iterations exceeding the counter threshold value without a determination that the sensor has recovered, and inhibiting the ACC based on the confirming the malfunction.