Digital Twin Technologies for Vehicular Prototyping: A Survey

Digital Twin (DT) technology is widely regarded as one of the most promising tools for industry development, demonstrating substantial application across numerous cyber-physical systems. Gradually, this technology has been introduced into modern vehicular systems focusing on its application in intelligent driving, connected vehicles, automotive engineering, aircraft health, and many more. By creating dynamic, virtual replicas of physical vehicles and their associated components, DT enables unprecedented levels of analysis, simulation, and real-time monitoring, thereby enhancing performance, safety, and sustainability. This paper offers a comprehensive review, extending beyond digital twins to include various prototyping approaches for target-specific applications focusing on the smart vehicular systems across automotive, aviation, and maritime domains driving the evolution of next-generation vehicular infrastructure.