To increase the safety of articulated heavy vehicles (AHVs), attention has been paid to exploring active vehicle safety systems (AVSSs), e.g., anti-lock braking systems. These active vehicle safety technologies are classified as 'reactive safety systems', designed to react to the current vehicle state. These systems are effective, but do not consider the effect of driver error. The main cause of traffic accidents is linked to human errors. A resolution to the problem is autonomous driving, which removes human factors from the control loop. There will be a transition period, during which most vehicles have some capabilities of autonomous driving. Since the late 1990s, lane departure warning and adaptive cruise control systems have been proposed. These technologies are classified as 'predictive safety systems' (PSSs), considering not only the current vehicle state, but also the predicted vehicle state and environmental hazards. For passenger vehicles, several PSSs have been investigated. These PSSs are featured with semiautonomous driving functions. AHVs represent a 7.5 times higher risk than passenger cars in highway operations. However, much less attention has been paid to exploring the PSSs for AHVs. This paper reviews the current status of essential technologies proposed and examined for autonomous and semi-autonomous AHVs. The pros and cons of the technologies are discussed and analyzed. As a result of the review, future research efforts are identified.