A vehicle control system for controlling a vehicle, including a set of task nodes, wherein each of the set of task nodes compares a failure criterion to input to the task node to generate a failure flag and provides output to at least one other task node of the set of task nodes; an aggregator node directly communicatively coupled to each of the set of task nodes, and wherein the aggregator node: receives a set of failure flags from the set of task nodes, determines a failure tier based on the set of failure flags, and generates a failure tier message defining the failure tier; and, a behavior planning node communicatively coupled to the aggregator node, wherein the behavior planning node: receives the failure tier message, and in response to the failure tier defined by the failure tier message, generates vehicle control instructions.