Effective information transmission between vehicles has become one of the solutions to improve road safety. Based on the huge advantages of optical wireless data transmission technology, this paper summarizes the research status of unmanned vehicles in optical wireless communication (OWC). The article not only studies the actual progress of building optical links through an unmanned vehicle, connecting air communication, ground communication, and underwater communication into a unified wireless network, and realizing the fast, stable, large-capacity data transmission system. The technical challenges of unmanned vehicle OWC are also discussed and its future development has prospected. INDEX TERMS optical wireless communication, communication and networking, unmanned aerial vehicles, ground operated vehicles, autonomous underwater vehicle