TY - JOUR
T1 - Vehicle, Driver, and Road Digital Twins for Connected Mobility
T2 - A Critical Review and Unified Conceptual Framework
AU - Kaya, Özlem
AU - Bacchiani, Lorenzo
AU - Melis, Andrea
AU - Presta, Roberta
AU - Lam, Chan Tong
AU - Pau, Giovanni
AU - Girau, Roberto
N1 - Publisher Copyright:
© 2026 by the authors.
PY - 2026/6
Y1 - 2026/6
N2 - Digital Twin (DT) technologies are increasingly adopted in the automotive domain to support real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and connected decision-making across vehicles, drivers, and road infrastructure. However, research on Vehicle, Driver, and Road Digital Twins (VDTs, DrDTs, and RDTs) remains fragmented, with heterogeneous definitions, architectural assumptions, and integration strategies. This paper presents a critical review of seventy-six studies published between 2008 and 2025, examining how these three DT domains are modeled, evaluated, and connected within intelligent mobility scenarios. The review synthesizes recurring architectural patterns, communication and computing choices, and the role of interoperability and standardization in multi-twin systems. It also highlights open challenges involving distributed coordination, semantic alignment, real-time operation, and driver-aware adaptation. Based on this analysis, the paper presents a unified conceptual framework for connected automotive digital twins and discusses key directions for building scalable and safety-aware mobility services.
AB - Digital Twin (DT) technologies are increasingly adopted in the automotive domain to support real-time monitoring, predictive analytics, and connected decision-making across vehicles, drivers, and road infrastructure. However, research on Vehicle, Driver, and Road Digital Twins (VDTs, DrDTs, and RDTs) remains fragmented, with heterogeneous definitions, architectural assumptions, and integration strategies. This paper presents a critical review of seventy-six studies published between 2008 and 2025, examining how these three DT domains are modeled, evaluated, and connected within intelligent mobility scenarios. The review synthesizes recurring architectural patterns, communication and computing choices, and the role of interoperability and standardization in multi-twin systems. It also highlights open challenges involving distributed coordination, semantic alignment, real-time operation, and driver-aware adaptation. Based on this analysis, the paper presents a unified conceptual framework for connected automotive digital twins and discusses key directions for building scalable and safety-aware mobility services.
KW - Driver Digital Twin
KW - Road Digital Twin
KW - Vehicle Digital Twin
KW - connected mobility
KW - distributed automotive systems
KW - interoperability
UR - https://www.scopus.com/pages/publications/105042976637
U2 - 10.3390/fi18060277
DO - 10.3390/fi18060277
M3 - Review article
AN - SCOPUS:105042976637
SN - 1999-5903
VL - 18
JO - Future Internet
JF - Future Internet
IS - 6
M1 - 277
ER -