Prospects and challenges of Metaverse application in data-driven intelligent transportation systems

The Metaverse is a concept used to refer to a virtual world that exists in parallel to the physical world. It has grown from a conceptual level to having real applications in virtual reality games. The applicability of the Metaverse in numerous sectors like marketing, education, social, and even advertising exists. However, there exists little or no work on Metaverse applicability to the transportation industry. Data-driven intelligent transportation systems (DDITS) aim to provide more intelligent systems based on exploiting data. This paper reviews the concepts and features of the Metaverse. Also, the review goes over three dominant DDITS challenges: vehicle fault detection and repair, testing new technologies, and anti-theft systems. In addition, it highlights prospective Metaverse solutions that apply to the DDITS. Buttressing the utility of Metaverse in DDITS, this paper presents two major case studies: the invisible to visible (I2V) and the Metaverse on Wheels (MoW) technologies. Finally, the influence, limitations, and open issues of Metaverse applications to DDITS are discussed.