Electrical and Communication Architectures for Safe Integration of Autonomous and Electric Vehicles: A Review of Emerging Technologies

Abstract

The transition toward autonomous and electric mobility is reshaping transportation into an integrated cyber-physical ecosystem in which vehicle electrical systems, communication networks, charging infrastructure, and intelligent control platforms must operate with high reliability and safety. This review examines the architectural requirements supporting this transformation, with emphasis on high-voltage power distribution, zonal electronic control, functional safety, fault tolerance, vehicle connectivity, charging systems, grid interaction, and emerging digital technologies. A structured narrative review approach was adopted to synthesise relevant engineering, transportation, communication, and power-system literature published up to 2024.

The findings indicate that safe autonomous-electric mobility depends on the convergence of efficient power-electronic architectures, centralised and zonal computing, deterministic in-vehicle communication, resilient V2X connectivity, and coordinated charging infrastructure. High-voltage systems require robust isolation, protection, thermal management, and bidirectional energy control, while electronic architectures increasingly favour software-defined platforms capable of supporting complex sensing and decision functions. Functional safety further requires redundancy, fault containment, graceful degradation, and validated fallback strategies. At infrastructure level, smart charging, vehicle-to-grid coordination, mobile-network coverage, grid capacity, and environmental resilience materially influence deployment performance. Digital twins, artificial intelligence, edge computing, and advanced cybersecurity are emerging as key enablers of predictive operation and system-wide optimisation.

The review concludes that technological progress alone is insufficient without interoperability, infrastructure readiness, governance, and workforce capability. It recommends stronger cross-domain standards, field validation under diverse operating conditions, secure V2X architectures, resilient charging networks, explainable artificial intelligence, and coordinated investment in communication and electrical infrastructure. These priorities are essential for achieving mobility systems that are not only technologically advanced, but also safe, resilient, scalable, and operationally sustainable.