Autonomous Vehicles in 5G and Beyond: A Survey

Fifth Generation (5G) technology is an emerging and fast adopting technology which is being utilized in most of the novel applications that require highly reliable low-latency communications. It has the capability to provide greater coverage, better access, and best suited for high density networks. Having all these benefits, it clearly implies that 5G could be used to satisfy the requirements of Autonomous vehicles. Automated driving Vehicles and systems are developed with a promise to provide comfort, safe and efficient drive reducing the risk of life. But, recently there are fatalities due to these autonomous vehicles and systems. This is due to the lack of robust state-of-art which has to be improved further. With the advent of 5G technology and rise of autonomous vehicles (AVs), road safety is going to get more secure with less human errors. However, integration of 5G and AV is still at its infant stage with several research challenges that needs to be addressed. This survey first starts with a discussion on the current advancements in AVs, automation levels, enabling technologies and 5G requirements. Then, we focus on the emerging techniques required for integrating 5G technology with AVs, impact of 5G and B5G technologies on AVs along with security concerns in AVs. The paper also provides a comprehensive survey of recent developments in terms of standardisation activities on 5G autonomous vehicle technology and current projects. The article is finally concluded with lessons learnt, future research directions and challenges.