A journey towards fully autonomous driving - fueled by a smart communication system

Autonomous driving solutions stretch over different disciplines and technologies e.g., sensors, communication, computation, machine learning, data analytic, etc., that need to be smartly stitched together for achieving end-to-end solutions. In this paper, we discuss the vision of level 5 autonomous vehicles (AV), relevant challenges, and analysis of the research literature. The paper focuses on the role of communication for connected and automated vehicles. Furthermore, the need for implanting intelligence in different architectural components and for various Autonomous Driving relevant operations is discussed. Challenges specific to communication, perception, service orchestration, service mobility, etc. are highlighted, relevant research literature analyzed, and potential solutions sketch is provided. We have also provided an overview of the large-scale proof-of-concepts around the globe that guide the readers towards studying different aspects of the autonomous driving and perspectives of stakeholders therein. The potential of Satellite-Air-Ground-Integrated-Networks (SAGINs) is studied for realizing the objectives of envisioned higher level autonomous driving. Based on the exhaustive analysis of the research work, this work concludes that there is a need for zooming out strategy, where the novel architectural, technological, and AI-based solution approaches are crafted by capturing the end-to-end system with the focus on most (if not all) stakeholders and their objectives.