Disclosed herein is a method of controlling an autonomous vehicle driving in a lane of a main line. The method may include determining whether the autonomous vehicle is driving in a target lane to accommodate merging traffic, determining whether a merge request message is received from a merging vehicle when the autonomous vehicle is determined to drive in the target lane, determining whether a collision with the merging vehicle will occur based on the merge request message when the merge request message is received, and sending a merge approval message to the merging vehicle when the collision with the merging vehicle is expected.