IEEE ITSS ITSC 2026 Workshop Naples, Italy
IEEE ITSC 2026, IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Society, and IEEE

Half-day workshop

Socially Compliant and
Strategic Autonomous Driving

Bringing together game theory, machine learning, and control to develop autonomous vehicles that can understand social norms, reason strategically, and act safely in mixed traffic.

Tuesday 15 September 2026 Convention Bureau Stazione Marittima · Aula 5 Room · Naples, Italy 15:15–17:45 (CEST)
Attendance and registration Invited speakers

About the workshop

Social intelligence is the next frontier for autonomous driving.

Safe navigation alone is not enough for autonomous vehicles to integrate seamlessly into mixed-traffic environments.

Autonomous vehicles must interpret implicit traffic norms, infer human intentions, and take part in cooperative or competitive interactions. This workshop examines how strategic modeling, adaptive learning, and rigorous control can work together to meet that challenge.

Through keynote presentations, invited talks, and a panel discussion, experts in multi-agent systems, reinforcement learning, human factors, and formal methods will connect high-level reasoning with robust, deployable vehicle architectures. The aim is to identify a practical research agenda for autonomous vehicles that are not only intelligent, but also socially adept and trustworthy.

Topics of interest

Core questions for socially aware autonomy

The workshop connects complementary perspectives across interaction, intelligence, and assurance.

Human-vehicle interaction modeling

Understanding social cues, driving conventions, and behavioral adaptation in mixed traffic.

Game-theoretic planning

Reasoning about cooperation, competition, and interdependent road-user decisions.

Safe reinforcement learning

Combining learning and adaptation with constraints for dependable vehicle behavior.

Uncertainty-aware decision-making

Planning robustly when perception, prediction, and human intent remain uncertain.

Real-world validation

Evaluating integrated approaches under realistic conditions and deployment constraints.

Invited speakers

Perspectives from learning, control, and human-centered mobility

Prof. Chen Sun

Speaker · Primary organizer

Prof. Chen Sun

The University of Hong Kong HKU

Presentation

Beyond Safety: Provably Guaranteed Planning for Autonomous Driving in Interactive and Uncertain Environments

University profile
Prof. Chen Lyu

Invited speaker

Prof. Chen Lyu

Nanyang Technological University NTU

Presentation

Towards Human-Centric Smart Mobility: From Human-Like Autonomy to Foundation Models

University profile
Prof. Yukun Lu

Invited speaker

Prof. Yukun Lu

University of New Brunswick UNB

Presentation

Socially Compliant Autonomous Trucking: From Physical Safety to Cooperative Road Interaction

University profile
Prof. Xiao Wang

Invited speaker

Prof. Xiao Wang

Anhui University AHU

Presentation

Socially Compatible and Interpretable Autonomous Driving via Computational Embodiment of Thomas-Kilmann Conflict Model

University profile

Workshop format

A focused half-day for ideas and discussion

15:15–17:45 · Convention Bureau Stazione Marittima · Aula 5 Room
Tuesday 15 September 2026. All times are local to Naples (CEST). The detailed running order will be added when confirmed.

  1. 01

    Keynote presentations

    Framing the research frontier and the central challenges for socially intelligent autonomy.

  2. 02

    Invited talks

    Technical perspectives spanning human-centered mobility, strategic reasoning, and safe planning.

  3. 03

    Panel discussion

    A collaborative discussion on research priorities, open problems, and paths toward real-world validation.

Panel and Organizers

Organized by

Safe Autonomy and Interactive Learning (SAIL) Lab

Department of Data and Systems Engineering
The University of Hong Kong

Primary organizer: Prof. Chen Sun

Join the workshop

Attendance and registration

Participation requires IEEE ITSC 2026 registration. Please register through the official conference website before attending.

  1. Choose your registration category. Workshop/Symposium/Tutorial Only registration is available for workshop-day attendance. Full and student conference registrations already include access to workshop sessions.
  2. Open the official registration page. Follow its “Register Here” link and sign in with your PaperCept PIN and password. If needed, use the PIN Wizard linked on that page.
  3. Complete payment and retain your confirmation. Check the official page for current fees, eligibility, accepted payment methods, receipts, and cancellation policies.

Attendance is in person. The conference does not provide live streaming of workshop sessions.

Official registration information

Acknowledgements

We thank the invited speakers, panelists, and participants for contributing to the workshop, and the IEEE ITSC 2026 organizing team for hosting this exchange within the conference programme.

The Bay of Naples with Mount Vesuvius beyond the waterfront
Naples, Italy · Bay of Naples and Mount Vesuvius

IEEE ITSC 2026

Join us in Naples

15:15–17:45 · Convention Bureau Stazione Marittima · Aula 5 Room
Tuesday 15 September 2026
Conference: 15–18 September 2026

Visit the conference website All times are local to Naples (CEST).