Mobile robotics is a very attractive research field. There are two main reasons for this. The first is the high number of applications and sectors where these machines could be introduced in the future: transport, agriculture, military, aerospace, etc. The second reason is that mobile robots are excellent test-beds to develop and integrate the results of many other research areas: control, computer vision, electronics, mechanics, artificial intelligence, etc. The third IFAC Symposium on Intelligent Autonomous Vehicles was an opportunity to present some of the latest developments in the area. Authors presented not only new methods and technologies to solve the classical problems related to intelligent autonomous vehicles, which include path planning, localization, environment modeling, path following, etc., but also new approaches to their design, such as new architectures, new navigation procedures, self-learning systems, etc. In addition, many different applications and vehicles were considered: from autonomous ocean vehicles to planetary rovers. This special issue of Robotica comprises some revised and updated selected papers of the Symposium. The variety of selected papers includes surveys, applications and design and development aspects of intelligent autonomous vehicles.