Exploring the Landscape of Autonomous Vehicles Research: A Scientometric Analysis in the Context of Urban Transportation Planning

Autonomous Vehicles (AVs) have the potential to (re)shape the urban transportation network drastically. The significant investment by the automotive industry and leading technology companies in AVs has resulted in a substantial surge in the number of published documents in this domain. Therefore, this study aims to analyze the current state and trajectory of AVs research by conducting a comprehensive review of the available literature. The study employs scientometric methods to examine the scientific landscape of AVs and assess the position of Urban Transportation Planning (UTP) within this context. The analysis encompasses both a macro-level perspective and a meso-level focus on UTP, utilizing datasets of journal articles published up to January 2023. The study addresses various questions such as identifying the main research trends, evaluating the impact and influence of countries and sources, determining the collaboration level among different countries, and assessing the maturity of AVs domain in the field of UTP. To accomplish this, the study analyzes the conceptual, intellectual, and social landscapes of AVs from both a holistic and macro-level perspective, as well as from the UTP perspective in a meso-level. The findings highlight a significant disparity between attention on AVs’ UTP aspect and their technical advancement, emphasizing the need for more comprehensive research to fully comprehend the implications of AVs deployment from the UTP perspective. The comprehensive understanding of the literature gained from this study will enable scholars to identify research gaps, necessities, and potential avenues for future research.