# Integrating LLMs with ITS: Recent Advances, Potentials, Challenges, and Future Directions

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2501.04437 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2501.04437/

## Key facts

- Cited by 23 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 147 of its 303 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 8 Jan 2025.

## Builds on (most cited first, 30 of 147)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [BERT: Pre-training of Deep Bidirectional Transformers for Language Understanding](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1810.04805/) (2018)
- [Language Models are Few-Shot Learners](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.14165/) (2020)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Training language models to follow instructions with human feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2203.02155/) (2022)
- [Exploring the Limits of Transfer Learning with a Unified Text-to-Text Transformer](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1910.10683/) (2019)
- [LLaMA: Open and Efficient Foundation Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2302.13971/) (2023)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [ReAct: Synergizing Reasoning and Acting in Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2210.03629/) (2022)
- [Scaling Laws for Neural Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2001.08361/) (2020)
- [PaLM: Scaling Language Modeling with Pathways](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.02311/) (2022)
- [Flamingo: a Visual Language Model for Few-Shot Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2204.14198/) (2022)
- [Parameter-Efficient Transfer Learning for NLP](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1902.00751/) (2019)
- [Learning Phrase Representations using RNN Encoder-Decoder for Statistical Machine Translation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1406.1078/) (2014)
- [On the Opportunities and Risks of Foundation Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2108.07258/) (2021)
- [The Power of Scale for Parameter-Efficient Prompt Tuning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2104.08691/) (2021)
- [RT-2: Vision-Language-Action Models Transfer Web Knowledge to Robotic Control](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.15818/) (2023)
- [A Survey of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.18223/) (2023)
- [Emergent Abilities of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2206.07682/) (2022)
- [Extracting Training Data from Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2012.07805/) (2020)
- [Survey of Hallucination in Natural Language Generation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2202.03629/) (2022)
- [BLOOM: A 176B-Parameter Open-Access Multilingual Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2211.05100/) (2022)
- [A Survey on Evaluation of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.03109/) (2023)
- [Llama Guard: LLM-based Input-Output Safeguard for Human-AI Conversations](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.06674/) (2023)
- [Spatio-Temporal Graph Convolutional Networks: A Deep Learning Framework for Traffic Forecasting](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1709.04875/) (2017)
- [Spectral Networks and Locally Connected Networks on Graphs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.6203/) (2013)
- [The RefinedWeb Dataset for Falcon LLM: Outperforming Curated Corpora with Web Data, and Web Data Only](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.01116/) (2023)
- [Fast Transformer Decoding: One Write-Head is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1911.02150/) (2019)
- [A Comprehensive Overview of Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2307.06435/) (2023)
- [Subword Regularization: Improving Neural Network Translation Models with Multiple Subword Candidates](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1804.10959/) (2018)

## Built on by (most cited first, 23 of 23)

- [A Comprehensive Survey on Multi-Agent Cooperative Decision-Making: Scenarios, Approaches, Challenges and Perspectives](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.13415/) (2025)
- [Exploring the Roles of Large Language Models in Reshaping Transportation Systems: A Survey, Framework, and Roadmap](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.21411/) (2025)
- [V2X-LLM: Enhancing V2X Integration and Understanding in Connected Vehicle Corridors](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.02239/) (2025)
- [Next-Generation LLM for UAV: From Natural Language to Autonomous Flight](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.21739/) (2025)
- [Large Language Models and Their Applications in Roadway Safety and Mobility Enhancement: A Comprehensive Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.06301/) (2025)
- [CrashSage: A Large Language Model-Centered Framework for Contextual and Interpretable Traffic Crash Analysis](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.07853/) (2025)
- [Leveraging Multimodal-LLMs Assisted by Instance Segmentation for Intelligent Traffic Monitoring](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.11304/) (2025)
- [AgentSUMO: An Agentic Framework for Interactive Simulation Scenario Generation in SUMO via Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.06804/) (2025)
- [LIFT: Interpretable truck driving risk prediction with literature-informed fine-tuned LLMs](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.22333/) (2025)
- [Multimodal Large Language Models for Enhanced Traffic Safety: A Comprehensive Review and Future Trends](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2504.16134/) (2025)
- [Towards Locally Deployable Fine-Tuned Causal Large Language Models for Mode Choice Behaviour](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.21432/) (2025)
- [A Survey of the State-of-the-Art in Conversational Question Answering Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2509.05716/) (2025)
- [Jailbreaking Large Vision Language Models in Intelligent Transportation Systems](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2511.13892/) (2025)
- [C-TRAIL: A Commonsense World Framework for Trajectory Planning in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2603.29908/) (2026)
- [Automated Traffic Incident Response Plans using Generative Artificial Intelligence: Part 1 -- Building the Incident Response Benchmark](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2506.03381/) (2025)
- [Application and Evaluation of Large Language Models for Forecasting the Impact of Traffic Incidents](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.04803/) (2025)
- [CLIPTime: Time-Aware Multimodal Representation Learning from Images and Text](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2508.00447/) (2025)
- [Spatiotemporal Semantic V2X Framework for Cooperative Collision Prediction](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.17216/) (2026)
- [Open-Ended Instruction Realization with LLM-Enabled Multi-Planner Scheduling in Autonomous Vehicles](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.08031/) (2026)
- [Large Language Models in Transportation Systems Management and Operations: From Text Reasoning to Multi-modal Decision Support](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.00991/) (2026)
- [Large Multimodal Agents for Intelligent Transportation Systems: Architectures, Evidence, and Deployment Challenges](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2608.08184/) (2026)
- [On the security and privacy of LLMs in Mobility](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.26295/) (2026)
- [Trustworthy Data- and ML-Ops for Intelligent Transportation Systems and Logistics](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01282/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS) are crucial for the development and operation of smart cities, addressing key challenges in efficiency, productivity, and environmental sustainability. This paper comprehensively reviews the transformative potential of Large Language Models (LLMs) in optimizing ITS. Initially, we provide an extensive overview of ITS, highlighting its components, operational principles, and overall effectiveness. We then delve into the theoretical background of various LLM techniques, such as GPT, T5, CTRL, and BERT, elucidating their relevance to ITS applications. Following this, we examine the wide-ranging applications of LLMs within ITS, including traffic flow prediction, vehicle detection and classification, autonomous driving, traffic sign recognition, and pedestrian detection. Our analysis reveals how these advanced models can significantly enhance traffic management and safety. Finally, we explore the challenges and limitations LLMs face in ITS, such as data availability, computational constraints, and ethical considerations. We also present several future research directions and potential innovations to address these challenges. This paper aims to guide researchers and practitioners through the complexities and opportunities of integrating LLMs in ITS, offering a roadmap to create more efficient, sustainable, and responsive next-generation transportation systems.