Concepts, key technologies, applications and development trends in autonomous transportation systems

Autonomous Transportation Systems (ATS) represents a transformative advancement in modern transportation, surpassing traditional transportation systems (TTS), autonomous driving technologies (ADT), and intelligent transportation systems (ITS). Unlike vehicle-centric autonomy or information-driven support systems, ATS emphasises system-level autonomy, multi-vehicle collaboration, and dynamic optimisation across road, maritime, air and rail transport. This paper provides a comprehensive review of the current state and future trends of ATS. It first examines the theoretical foundations and the evolution of ATS concept, including system engineering methodologies, the closed-loop architecture of perception-awareness-decision-control-collaboration-improvement, and the integration of model-driven and data-driven approaches. It then defines the concept, components, and characteristics of ATS, systematically analysing autonomous vehicle, digital infrastructure, information platform, and traffic environment, as well as the core features required to achieve autonomy. Key technologies are reviewed, covering information perception, interoperability, collaborative computing, and digital twin. The standards and applications are discussed across different modes of transportation in facilitating industrial deployment. Finally, future research trends are outlined, with emphasis on theoretical integration, cross-modal collaboration, verifiable safety, and application scenarios. Overall, ATS is regarded as the ultimate form of ITS, offering significant potential in enhancing safety, efficiency, and sustainability, and promoting a paradigm shift towards the next generation of transportation systems.