# Towards Human-Centric Autonomous Driving: A Fast-Slow Architecture Integrating Large Language Model Guidance with Reinforcement Learning

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2505.06875 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2505.06875/

## Key facts

- Cited by 11 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Placed in Large language models for driving, one of 9 directions in End-to-end autonomous driving.
- Builds on 27 of its 41 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 11 May 2025.

## Placed in

- End-to-end autonomous driving / [Large language models for driving](https://mlsanity.com/driving/large-language-models-for-driving/)

## Builds on (most cited first, 27 of 27)

- [Attention Is All You Need](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1706.03762/) (2017)
- [GPT-4 Technical Report](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.08774/) (2023)
- [Proximal Policy Optimization Algorithms](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1707.06347/) (2017)
- [Chain-of-Thought Prompting Elicits Reasoning in Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2201.11903/) (2022)
- [Playing Atari with Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1312.5602/) (2013)
- [Asynchronous Methods for Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1602.01783/) (2016)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Autonomous Driving: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2002.00444/) (2020)
- [End-to-end Autonomous Driving: Challenges and Frontiers](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2306.16927/) (2023)
- [DriveVLM: The Convergence of Autonomous Driving and Large Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.12289/) (2024)
- [DriveGPT4: Interpretable End-to-end Autonomous Driving via Large Language Model](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.01412/) (2023)
- [Quantifying Generalization in Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1812.02341/) (2018)
- [A Survey on Multimodal Large Language Models for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.12320/) (2023)
- [A Survey of Reinforcement Learning from Human Feedback](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2312.14925/) (2023)
- [Recent Trends in Deep Learning Based Natural Language Processing](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1708.02709/) (2017)
- [DiLu: A Knowledge-Driven Approach to Autonomous Driving with Large Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2309.16292/) (2023)
- [LanguageMPC: Large Language Models as Decision Makers for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.03026/) (2023)
- [Generalization in Reinforcement Learning by Soft Data Augmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2011.13389/) (2020)
- [LLM4Drive: A Survey of Large Language Models for Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.01043/) (2023)
- [Vision Language Models in Autonomous Driving: A Survey and Outlook](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2310.14414/) (2023)
- [Deep Reinforcement Learning for Intelligent Transportation Systems: A Survey](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2005.00935/) (2020)
- [Milestones in Autonomous Driving and Intelligent Vehicles: Survey of Surveys](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.17220/) (2023)
- [Explainable AI for Safe and Trustworthy Autonomous Driving: A Systematic Review](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2402.10086/) (2024)
- [Continuously Learning, Adapting, and Improving: A Dual-Process Approach to Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2405.15324/) (2024)
- [Human-Centric Autonomous Systems With LLMs for User Command Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2311.08206/) (2023)
- [Language-Driven Policy Distillation for Cooperative Driving in Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2410.24152/) (2024)
- [TeLL-Drive: Enhancing Autonomous Driving with Teacher LLM-Guided Deep Reinforcement Learning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2502.01387/) (2025)
- [Interact, Instruct to Improve: A LLM-Driven Parallel Actor-Reasoner Framework for Enhancing Autonomous Vehicle Interactions](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2503.00502/) (2025)

## Built on by (most cited first, 11 of 11)

- [Vision-Language-Action Models for Autonomous Driving: Past, Present, and Future](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.16760/) (2025)
- [Bench2Drive-VL: Benchmarks for Closed-Loop Autonomous Driving with Vision-Language Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2604.01259/) (2026)
- [FASTopoWM: Fast-Slow Lane Segment Topology Reasoning with Latent World Models](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2507.23325/) (2025)
- [SafeCoop: Unravelling Full Stack Safety in Agentic Collaborative Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2510.18123/) (2025)
- [A Review of Learning-Based Motion Planning: Toward a Data-Driven Optimal Control Approach](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.11944/) (2025)
- [Driving Like Yourself: A Benchmark for Closed-Loop Personalized End-to-End Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2602.18757/) (2026)
- [LA-RL: Language Action-guided Reinforcement Learning with Safety Guarantees for Autonomous Highway Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2512.05686/) (2025)
- [Towards Open Environments and Instructions: General Vision-Language Navigation via Fast-Slow Interactive Reasoning](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2601.09111/) (2026)
- [Cognitive Dual-Process Planning for Autonomous Driving with Structured Scene Knowledge and Verifiable Reasoning-Action Consistency](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2607.19194/) (2026)
- [Beyond Textual Chain-of-Thought: A Survey on Action-Grounded Reasoning in Autonomous Driving](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2609.01659/) (2026)
- [A Survey on End-to-End Autonomous Driving Training from the Perspectives of Data, Strategy, and Platform](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.00926/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Autonomous driving has made significant strides through data-driven techniques, achieving robust performance in standardized tasks. However, existing methods frequently overlook user-specific preferences, offering limited scope for interaction and adaptation with users. To address these challenges, we propose a "fast-slow" decision-making framework that integrates a Large Language Model (LLM) for high-level instruction parsing with a Reinforcement Learning (RL) agent for low-level real-time decision. In this dual system, the LLM operates as the "slow" module, translating user directives into structured guidance, while the RL agent functions as the "fast" module, making time-critical maneuvers under stringent latency constraints. By decoupling high-level decision making from rapid control, our framework enables personalized user-centric operation while maintaining robust safety margins. Experimental evaluations across various driving scenarios demonstrate the effectiveness of our method. Compared to baseline algorithms, the proposed architecture not only reduces collision rates but also aligns driving behaviors more closely with user preferences, thereby achieving a human-centric mode. By integrating user guidance at the decision level and refining it with real-time control, our framework bridges the gap between individual passenger needs and the rigor required for safe, reliable driving in complex traffic environments.