Bench2ADVLM: A Closed-Loop Benchmark for Vision-language Models in Autonomous Driving

Tianyuan Zhang; Ting Jin; Lu Wang; Jiangfan Liu; Siyuan Liang; Mingchuan Zhang; Aishan Liu; Xianglong Liu

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arXiv · 2508.02028

Bench2ADVLM: A Closed-Loop Benchmark for Vision-language Models in Autonomous Driving

Tianyuan Zhang·Ting Jin·Lu Wang·Jiangfan Liu·Siyuan Liang·Mingchuan Zhang·Aishan Liu·Xianglong Liu

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Abstract

Vision-Language Models (VLMs) have recently emerged as a promising paradigm in autonomous driving (AD). However, current performance evaluation protocols for VLM-based AD systems (ADVLMs) are predominantly confined to open-loop settings with static inputs, neglecting the more realistic and informative closed-loop setting that captures interactive behavior, feedback resilience, and real-world safety. To address this, we introduce Bench2ADVLM, a unified hierarchical closed-loop evaluation framework for real-time, interactive assessment of ADVLMs across both simulation and physical platforms. Inspired by dual-process theories of cognition, we first adapt diverse ADVLMs to simulation environments via a dual-system adaptation architecture. In this design, heterogeneous high-level driving commands generated by target ADVLMs (fast system) are interpreted by a general-purpose VLM (slow system) into standardized mid-level control actions suitable for execution in simulation. To bridge the gap between simulation and reality, we design a physical control abstraction layer that translates these mid-level actions into low-level actuation signals, enabling, for the first time, closed-loop testing of ADVLMs on physical vehicles. To enable more comprehensive evaluation, Bench2ADVLM introduces a self-reflective scenario generation module that automatically explores model behavior and uncovers potential failure modes for safety-critical scenario generation. Overall, Bench2ADVLM establishes a hierarchical evaluation pipeline that seamlessly integrates high-level abstract reasoning, mid-level simulation actions, and low-level real-world execution. Experiments on diverse scenarios across multiple state-of-the-art ADVLMs and physical platforms validate the diagnostic strength of our framework, revealing that existing ADVLMs still exhibit limited performance under closed-loop conditions.

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Tianyuan Zhang, Ting Jin, Lu Wang, Jiangfan Liu, Siyuan Liang, Mingchuan Zhang, Aishan Liu, Xianglong Liu. 2025-08-20. Bench2ADVLM: A Closed-Loop Benchmark for Vision-language Models in Autonomous Driving. https://arxiv.org/abs/2508.02028

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