Our journal welcomes not only original high-quality papers covering the theoretical, experimental and operational aspects of electrical and electronics engineering in mobile radio, motor vehicles and land transportation, but also industry-focused publication focusing on research findings and suggesting ideas that may be useful to those conducting similar research.

Our journal welcomes not only original high-quality papers covering the theoretical, experimental and operational aspects of electrical and electronics engineering in mobile radio, motor vehicles and land transportation, but also industry-focused publication focusing on research findings and suggesting ideas that may be useful to those conducting similar research.

Our first monthly feature paper, co-authored by industry practitioners and academic researchers from Aeolix ITS, Renault S.A., RWTH-Aachen University, and Southeast University, present a comprehensive technical review of the evolution of technologies, architectures and validation approaches supporting intelligent vehicles. By adopting a holistic perspective on safety assessment and V&V throughout the development and deployment lifecycle of automated driving systems, with primary focus on the dynamic driving task, the paper synthesizes the lessons learned from their evolution, identifies critical development gaps, analyzes current challenges, and outlines future research directions to support their safe deployment.

The second feature article, co-authored by researchers from Fraunhofer Heinrich Hertz Institute, focuses on a timely issue, namely the integration of terrestrial networks (TN) and non-terrestrial networks (NTN), which is a key enabler for ubiquitous connectivity in IMT-2030 (6G). In particular, the authors present a hybrid resource-sharing framework to realize efficient spectrum reuse between TN and NTN while protecting overlapping coverage areas from inter-system interference.

We’ve provided short summaries of these feature articles, written in accessible language that we hope will make your reading experience enjoyable.

Four Decades of Automated Driving R&D: Evolution, Challenges, Future Directions
Meng Lu, Javier Ibanez-Guzman, Adrian Zlocki, and Chen Wang

Summary by Meng Lu: The development of intelligent road vehicles within the context of intelligent transportation systems was driven from its inception by a clear and socially grounded objective: improving road safety, driver comfort, and transport efficiency. Over four decades, this objective has been pursued through successive generations of technology from early navigation systems and driver assistance functions to the highly integrated, software-defined automated driving systems of today. Vehicle safety by design has remained the core mission throughout, and the progression from purely electromechanical systems through mechatronic architectures to software-intensive intelligent machines represents one of the most consequential engineering transformations of the modern era in terms of performance, technology, and price-performance ratio. The paper gives a broad overview of the domain of automated driving, covering inter alia the following topics: introduction of the rationale, functions, and key components of automated driving; reviews of the main technological milestones, the architectural evolution, and the enabling concepts that have shaped modern intelligent vehicle systems; the technical aspects of the safety assessment of automated driving systems (ADS); regulation and standardization aspects; the gaps and emerging trends in ADS development and deployment. If you have an interest in understanding the history, the challenges and the research trends of this important domain, this paper might be very relevant to you.

Spectrum Sharing and Sensing-Based Scheduling in Integrated Terrestrial–Non-Terrestrial Networks
Priyanka Dey, Thomas Haustein, Chaitali Pawase, Lars Thiele, and Thomas Wirth

Summary by Priyanka Dey: Integrating terrestrial networks (TN) and non-terrestrial networks (NTN) is an important step toward ubiquitous connectivity in 6G. TN mainly provides coverage in densely populated areas, while NTN can extend connectivity to rural and remote regions. Together, they can improve spectrum reuse and increase overall network capacity. However, when TN and NTN coverage overlaps, sharing the same spectrum can cause interference. Fixed spectrum-sharing methods may also lead to inefficient spectrum use when traffic conditions change. Depending on the deployment and coverage characteristics, some areas may benefit from fixed spectrum sharing, while others may support dynamic spectrum sharing with overlapping use of the spectrum. This paper investigates spectrum-sensing-based approaches for efficient spectrum sharing between TN and NTN while limiting interference in overlapping coverage areas. The key contribution is to identify suitable spectrum-sharing strategies based on deployment and coverage conditions, and to propose dynamic sharing methods that do not require direct coordination between TN and NTN. By building on spectrum-sensing mechanisms already standardized by 3GPP, the proposed approaches provide a practical and implementable path toward spectrum sharing, without requiring new coordination mechanisms between TN and NTN. This helps make dynamic spectrum sharing more feasible for real-world deployments.

IEEE VTS Website