# RL for autonomous driving and traffic

Area: [Deep reinforcement learning methods](https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/index.md). HTML: https://mlsanity.com/deeprl/rl-for-autonomous-driving-and-traffic/

## Key facts

- RL for autonomous driving and traffic: 375 papers on arXiv since 2024 (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- 11 of its 375 mapped papers (3%) cite “CaRL: Learning Scalable Planning Policies with Simple Rewards” (2025, arXiv 2504.17838).
- 9 of its 375 mapped papers (2%) cite “Synthesis of Model Predictive Control and Reinforcement Learning: Survey and Classification” (2025, arXiv 2502.02133).
- 5 new papers 30 Sep–14 Oct.

## Most cited here

- [CaRL: Learning Scalable Planning Policies with Simple Rewards](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.17838/) (2025), cited by 11 papers here
- [Synthesis of Model Predictive Control and Reinforcement Learning: Survey and Classification](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.02133/) (2025), cited by 9 papers here
- [A Review of Reward Functions for Reinforcement Learning in the context of Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.01440/) (2024), cited by 8 papers here
- [HAIM-DRL: Enhanced Human-in-the-loop Reinforcement Learning for Safe and Efficient Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2401.03160/) (2024), cited by 7 papers here
- [Think2Drive: Efficient Reinforcement Learning by Thinking in Latent World Model for Quasi-Realistic Autonomous Driving (in CARLA-v2)](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.16720/) (2024), cited by 7 papers here
- [HOPE: A Reinforcement Learning-based Hybrid Policy Path Planner for Diverse Parking Scenarios](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.20579/) (2024), cited by 7 papers here
- [CarPlanner: Consistent Auto-regressive Trajectory Planning for Large-scale Reinforcement Learning in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.19908/) (2025), cited by 6 papers here
- [Gen-Drive: Enhancing Diffusion Generative Driving Policies with Reward Modeling and Reinforcement Learning Fine-tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.05582/) (2024), cited by 5 papers here
- [Hybrid Action Based Reinforcement Learning for Multi-Objective Compatible Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.08096/) (2025), cited by 5 papers here
- [A Reinforcement Learning-Boosted Motion Planning Framework: Comprehensive Generalization Performance in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01465/) (2024), cited by 4 papers here

## New (30 Sep–14 Oct)

- [Comprehensive Comparisons of Reinforcement Learning Algorithms in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.19429/) (2026-10-14)
- [Beyond Safe Execution: Safe Online Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Driving with Value Calibration and Adaptive Guidance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.17799/) (2026-10-13)
- [Adaptive Multi-Discriminator WGAN Framework for Resource-Constrained Internet of Vehicles Using Reinforcement Learning and Game Theory](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.10926/) (2026-10-07)
- [Energy-Aware Path Following: Comparative Analysis of Reinforcement Learning and NMPC for Electric Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.08112/) (2026-10-06)
- [Ramp Metering Control via Hybrid State Deep Reinforcement Learning in Partially Observable Connected Vehicle Environments](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.06266/) (2026-10-05)