If a AV runs a red light or a stop sign, it should be the same penalty, period.
If AV companies want to avoid the tickets, they can make their claimed superior drivers avoid violating the law.
If an AV is regularly running red lights or stop signs, it should be a much worse penalty. It shouldn't be permitted to operate at all.
It shouldn't just be given occasional tickets. Tickets are not the right enforcement mechanism.
Do we really want to require this service to be a million times better? This would surely kill more people than the alternative.
I think ticketing is just broken in this context. People don't want tickets, so they take care not to break rules. The same person may do such thing, if they are in a hurry, if they are tired, yadaa yadaa, their economics and, possibly their freedom, are at risk.
None of this applies to a corporation. An AV running a red light is not, ever, "I was tired and nobody is driving at this hour officer", it's systematic. Behavior can be recorded 1 to 1 and optimized, why would we want to depend on specific scenarios in which police seems something happening?