# Coverage based testing for V&V and Safety Assurance of Self-driving Autonomous Vehicles: A Systematic Literature Review

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2103.04364 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2103.04364/

## Key facts

- Cited by 8 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 8 of its 43 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 7 Mar 2021.

## Builds on (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [Testing Scenario Library Generation for Connected and Automated Vehicles, Part I: Methodology](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.03419/) (2019)
- [Game-Theoretic Modeling of Driver and Vehicle Interactions for Verification and Validation of Autonomous Vehicle Control Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.08589/) (2016)
- [A Systematic Literature Review about the impact of Artificial Intelligence on Autonomous Vehicle Safety](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1904.02697/) (2019)
- [Testing Scenario Library Generation for Connected and Automated Vehicles, Part II: Case Studies](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1905.03428/) (2019)
- [A Corroborative Approach to Verification and Validation of Human--Robot Teams](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1608.07403/) (2016)
- [Intelligent Agent-Based Stimulation for Testing Robotic Software in Human-Robot Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1604.05508/) (2016)
- [Model-based Test Generation for Robotic Software: Automata versus Belief-Desire-Intention Agents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1609.08439/) (2016)
- [Systematic and Realistic Testing in Simulation of Control Code for Robots in Collaborative Human-Robot Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1511.01354/) (2015)

## Built on by (most cited first, 8 of 8)

- [A Survey on Scenario-Based Testing for Automated Driving Systems in High-Fidelity Simulation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.00964/) (2021)
- [A Scenario-Based Functional Testing Approach to Improving DNN Performance](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.07083/) (2023)
- [Intersection focused Situation Coverage-based Verification and Validation Framework for Autonomous Vehicles Implemented in CARLA](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2112.14706/) (2021)
- [On the Need for a Statistical Foundation in Scenario-Based Testing of Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.02274/) (2025)
- [Robustness Verification for Knowledge-Based Logic of Risky Driving Scenes](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.16364/) (2023)
- [Few-Shot Scenario Testing for Autonomous Vehicles Based on Neighborhood Coverage and Similarity](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.01795/) (2024)
- [TigAug: Data Augmentation for Testing Traffic Light Detection in Autonomous Driving Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.05932/) (2025)
- [Assessing behaviour coverage in a multi-agent system simulation for autonomous vehicle testing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.23445/) (2025)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Self-driving Autonomous Vehicles (SAVs) are gaining more interest each passing day by the industry as well as the general public. Tech and automobile companies are investing huge amounts of capital in research and development of SAVs to make sure they have a head start in the SAV market in the future. One of the major hurdles in the way of SAVs making it to the public roads is the lack of confidence of public in the safety aspect of SAVs. In order to assure safety and provide confidence to the public in the safety of SAVs, researchers around the world have used coverage-based testing for Verification and Validation (V&V) and safety assurance of SAVs. The objective of this paper is to investigate the coverage criteria proposed and coverage maximizing techniques used by researchers in the last decade up till now, to assure safety of SAVs. We conduct a Systematic Literature Review (SLR) for this investigation in our paper. We present a classification of existing research based on the coverage criteria used. Several research gaps and research directions are also provided in this SLR to enable further research in this domain. This paper provides a body of knowledge in the domain of safety assurance of SAVs. We believe the results of this SLR will be helpful in the progression of V&V and safety assurance of SAVs.