Towards Human-Like Driving: Active Inference in Autonomous Vehicle Control

Abstract

This paper presents a novel approach to Autonomous Vehicle (AV) control through the application of active inference, a theory derived from neuroscience that conceptualizes the brain as a predictive machine. Traditional autonomous driving systems rely heavily on Modular Pipelines, Imitation Learning, or Reinforcement Learning, each with inherent limitations in adaptability, generalization, and computational efficiency. Active inference addresses these challenges by minimizing prediction error (termed "surprise") through a dynamic model that balances perception and action. Our method integrates active inference with deep learning to manage lateral control in AVs, enabling them to perform lane following maneuvers within a simulated urban environment. We demonstrate that our model, despite its simplicity, effectively learns and generalizes from limited data without extensive retraining, significantly reducing computational demands. The proposed approach not only enhances the adaptability and performance of AVs in dynamic scenarios but also aligns closely with human-like driving behavior, leveraging a generative model to predict and adapt to environmental changes. Results from extensive experiments in the CARLA simulator show promising outcomes, outperforming traditional methods in terms of adaptability and efficiency, thereby advancing the potential of active inference in real-world autonomous driving applications.