Visualization Analysis of Automated Motorway Driving Studies Based on Mapping Knowledge Domain

To understand the status of automated motorway driving (AMD) studies and explore research hotspots and fronts, 1,281 related articles are retrieved as data samples. Based on mapping knowledge domain (MKD) and bibliometric approaches, these articles are analyzed from multiple perspectives, including spatiotemporal distribution, document co-citation, and keywords co-occurrence. The results show that knowledge bases of AMD studies over the last decade or so have focused on four major areas of “mixed traffic flow,” “trajectory prediction,” “computer vision,” “simulation,” and “connected and automated vehicle.” The four dominant clusters of “driver behavior,” “autonomous vehicles,” “connected vehicle,” and “task analysis” represent current research hotspots and fronts. Among these, exploring the impact of vehicle-infrastructure cooperation on the overall transportation environment is crucial and prospective for the introduction of intelligent vehicles. Safety technology challenges faced by AMD, such as autonomous driving, accident prevention, and control, also require great attention.