The paper introduces Endpoint-Constrained Optimization (ECO), a lightweight postprocessing layer that corrects intermediate waypoints of end-to-end driving policies while preserving the predicted endpoint. ECO does not require maps, privileged simulator state, or additional training, and can be applied to a wide range of waypoint-emitting policies. Experiments on two closed-loop simulators show that ECO significantly improves closed-loop performance, achieving top results in the HUGSIM Closed-Loop Driving Challenge and boosting scene scores on AlpaSim.
By Brayden Zhang, Mahsa Golchoubian, Igor Gilitschenski, Boris Ivanovic, Kashyap Chitta
The paper introduces DriveMLP, a lightweight MLP policy for autonomous driving that is trained using an Expert‑Guided RL (EGRL) framework. EGRL leverages reinforcement learning solely as an optimization tool, guided by a trajectory‑distance reward derived from logged expert data, and the study shows that the training strategy itself yields significant performance gains over model complexity. DriveMLP achieves an 86.51 score on the nuPlan Val14 Reactive benchmark, surpassing the previous best IL planner by 3.2 points while offering more than 15× faster inference.
By Alessandro Canevaro, Julian Schmidt, Hang Yu, Ye Jin, Sajad Marvi, Georg Martius, Julian Jordan
OPTED is a method for on‑policy fine‑tuning of end‑to‑end driving models that separates reinforcement learning from the policy update. A privileged teacher trained with RL on vectorized inputs (HD‑maps and bounding boxes) supervises the pre‑trained student during closed‑loop post‑training. Applied to the camera‑based models TransFuser and VaVAM in AlpaSim, OPTED boosts driving scores by 1.6× and 9.5×, respectively, while requiring roughly three orders of magnitude fewer simulator interactions than direct RL post‑training.
By Damiano Da Col, Maximilian Igl, Peter Karkus, Kashyap Chitta, Boris Ivanovic, Marco Pavone, Konrad Schindler, Christos Sakaridis
Efficient Multi-Modal Planning with Reward-Guided Preference Optimization for Autonomous Driving proposes EMPlan, a hybrid trajectory planning method that combines sparse anchors with an offset refinement module for low-latency, high-accuracy predictions. The approach uses a two-stage training paradigm—pretraining followed by reward-guided fine-tuning—to improve safety without extra inference cost, leveraging rule-based reward signals and unpaired preference supervision. EMPlan is evaluated on the non-reactive NAVSIM benchmark, achieving a favorable balance between planning accuracy and efficiency under real-time constraints.
By Chenglin Chen, Lujia Wang, Xinhu Zheng, Jun Ma, Haoang Li
arXiv:2602. 23499v4 Announce Type: replace-cross Abstract: Collecting a high-quality dataset is a critical task that demands meticulous attention to detail, as overlooking certain aspects can render the entire dataset unusable.
By Tugrul Gorgulu, Atakan Dag, M. Esat Kalfaoglu, Halil Ibrahim Kuru, Baris Can Cam, Halil Ibrahim Ozturk, Ozsel Kilinc
The paper introduces a low‑cost, open experimental platform for end‑to‑end autonomous driving on miniature Ackermann vehicles, combining a physical car, printed track, data collection tools, trajectory registration, and a Webots digital twin. It implements command‑conditioned behavior cloning, achieving a mean cross‑track error of 6.1 cm on the real vehicle and demonstrating the impact of camera field of view in simulation. Using synthetic data from the digital twin and a sim‑to‑real image translator, a higher‑capacity policy trained on both synthetic and real data completes all four track routes, outperforming the baseline trained only on real data.
By Gustavo Claudio Karl Couto, Eric Aislan Antonelo, Gabriel George Zipperer