Corrosion affects all industrial sectors where metals or metal alloys are used in their structures. In the automotive industry, the continuous search for lightweight parts has increased the demand for effective corrosion protection, in order to improve vehicle performance without compromising durability and safety. In this scenario, coatings are essential elements to preserve and protect vehicle parts from various environmental aggressions. Automotive coatings can be classified into primers, topcoats, clearcoats, and specialty coatings. Primers provide corrosion resistance and promote adhesion between the substrate and topcoat. Topcoats provide color, gloss, and durability to the coating system, while clearcoats enhance the appearance and durability of the finish. Specialty coatings provide additional properties, such as scratch resistance, chemical resistance, and UV protection. In addition to these categories, there are the smart coatings, defined as those capable of modifying their properties in response to external stimulus, such as changes in pH, temperature, moisture, electric or magnetic fields, mechanical stress, among others. This change in properties can be obtained by incorporating certain nanoparticles or special additives that could lead to significant improvements in the durability and performance of automotive components, as self-healing and self-cleaning ability. In this way, the present work aims to identify innovations and strategies in materials and processes in the field of smart coatings, with applications in the automotive industry. A total of 72 articles were identified in the Scopus, Web of Science and Science Direct databases, in a period from 2013 to 2023. Of these, 37 papers were evaluated, and their results were synthesized in order to obtain a summary of developments in this area, in addition to identifying trends. Through this research, are present an overview of smart coating development and some alternatives for its main technological challenges such as reducing complexity and production costs.