Knowledge Mapping with CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and SciMAT on Intelligent Connected Vehicles: Road Safety Issue

The rapid development of the Intelligent connected vehicle (ICV) industry has stimulated technological innovation in energy and communication while also highlighting the need for effective policies and road safety measures. Understanding and addressing road safety issues in the context of ICVs can contribute to ICV development and safe driving. This paper employs a knowledge mapping approach to scientifically and intuitively demonstrate research on the road safety issues of ICV over the last decade. By utilizing bibliometric tools such as CiteSpace, VOSviewer, and SciMAT, a total of 3661 original articles from the Web of Science are examined to explore three aspects. Firstly, the study investigates the collaborative relationships among authors and institutions within the industry. Secondly, it summarizes major research topics by analyzing and clustering keywords. Lastly, the paper identifies research hotspots and predicts future research directions. The findings reveal a dynamic field characterized by close collaboration among diverse institutions, with China and the United States emerging as the most active countries and mathematics and computer science journals becoming mainstream. According to three bibliometric tools, the research topics primarily revolve around three areas: Vehicular ad hoc Networks (VANET), intelligent transportation systems (ITS), and network security. Machine learning and V2X communication are predicted to be essential research topics in the next stage. Research on traffic accidents still has potential as the number of ICVs increases.