Trustworthy and Explainable AI for Vehicle Perception and Driver Monitoring

A special issue of Vehicles (ISSN 2624-8921). This special issue belongs to the section "Intelligent and Connected Mobility".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 30 November 2026 | Viewed by 135

Special Issue Editors


E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Vicomtech Foundation, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), 20009 San Sebastián, Spain
Interests: autonomous driving; trustworthy AI; standardization

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Grupo de Tratamiento de Imágenes (GTI), Information Processing and Telecommunications Center, ETSI Telecomunicación, Universidad Politécnica de Madrid, 28040 Madrid, Spain
Interests: machine learning; image processing; pattern recognition; stochastic dynamic models

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Vicomtech, Basque Research and Technology Alliance (BRTA), 20009 Donostia, Spain
Interests: artificial intelligence; generative AI; domain gap analysis; multi-sensor fusion

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

The rapid evolution of Artificial Intelligence and its application to Autonomous Driving Systems (ADSs) is fundamentally reshaping research and industry trends. As we move towards higher levels of automation, the “black-box” nature of deep learning models conflicts with Trustworthy AI requirements, particularly within the European context.

Recent breakthroughs in Generative AI, and specifically Vision–Language Models (VLMs), are opening new pathways for innovation in autonomous driving. Even with the emergence of novel End-to-End (E2E) paradigms, such as Vision–Language–Action (VLA), Perception Systems (PSs) and Driver Monitoring Systems (DMSs) remain the primary challenges for any ADS. Complex traffic scenes, edge cases, human behaviour, and ever-changing real-world situations require not only the practical application of methodologies to deploy GenAI in safety-critical environments, but also the guarantee of and adherence to Trustworthy AI principles. A comprehensive analysis of limitations, capabilities, privacy, ethical aspects, transparency, and co-existence with safety systems is now essential.

We seek original research and review articles focusing on, but not limited to, the following:

  • Explainable AI (XAI) for CCAM architectures, real-time perception, and DMS.
  • Application frameworks for Trustworthy AI in compliance with European regulations (e.g., EU AI Act).
  • Generative AI and VLM deployment and co-existence with safety-critical systems.
  • Analysis of limitations and capabilities of GenAI/VLM in complex scenes, diverse human behaviour, and edge cases.
  • Privacy-preserving AI: on-device processing, federated learning, and data anonymization techniques.
  • Human–Machine Interaction (HMI) powered by transparent AI reasoning.

Dr. Marcos Nieto
Dr. Carlos R. del Blanco
Dr. Nerea Aranjuelo
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 250 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for assessment.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Vehicles is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 1800 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • trustworthy AI
  • generative AI
  • vision–language-models (VLA)
  • end-to-end (E2E)
  • driver monitoring systems
  • human–machine interface (HMI)

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Published Papers

This special issue is now open for submission.
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