Exploring Vehicle Telematics in Intelligent Transportation Systems: Applications, Challenges, and Future Prospects

Vehicle telematics aims to enhance fuel efficiency, reduce emissions, improve diagnostics, promote road safety, and optimize fleet management. Vehicle telematics solutions can be implemented using either smartphone or cyber-physical based systems, offering various applications within the realm of Intelligent Transportation Systems (ITS). This study systematically reviews the existing literature on the applications of smartphone and cyber-physical-based vehicle telematics within ITS. A comprehensive search was conducted in the Web of Science (WoS) and Scopus databases, with the search completed in October 2024. Studies focused on the vehicle telematics applications in ITS were included. Out of 397 articles related to smartphone-based vehicle telematics, 54 were selected for an in-depth review. Similarly, 37 articles were shortlisted from 210 identified studies on cyber-physical-based vehicle telematics. The review reveals that vehicle telematics is utilized in various applications, including eco-driving, eco-routing, driver behavior monitoring, vehicle health diagnostics, road pavement condition monitoring, and fleet management. This systematic review highlights the current state of vehicle telematics in ITS, analyzing and comparing different solutions developed using smartphones and cyber-physical systems. It also identifies existing challenges, reports on scientific trends, and suggests future research directions for expanding the application of vehicle telematics.