A computer-implemented method for inter-vehicle communications amongst autonomous vehicles, the method comprising: transmitting, by a first autonomous vehicle a vehicle identifier, ID, and vehicle information of a first autonomous vehicle to a cloud server over a network, wherein the cloud server is communicatively coupled to a plurality of autonomous vehicles; receiving, by the first autonomous vehicle a list of one or more vehicle identifiers, IDs, from the cloud server, the vehicle IDs identifying one or more autonomous vehicles that are within a predetermined geographic proximity of the first autonomous vehicle, wherein the cloud server maintains a neighboring vehicle data structure storing geographic neighboring information of the plurality of autonomous vehicles based on their respective vehicle information periodically received from the plurality of autonomous vehicles, and identifies the one or more autonomous vehicles using a nearest neighbor search algorithm, wherein the neighboring vehicle data structure comprises a k-dimensional, k-d, tree, and the k-d tree comprises a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding to one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles managed by the cloud server, wherein the k-dimension includes latitude, longitude, and altitude, and traveling directions are integrated into tree nodes; and communicating, by the first autonomous vehicle with a second autonomous vehicle that is selected from a first list of the one or more autonomous vehicles via a wireless local area network to exchange an operational status of the first autonomous vehicle with the second autonomous vehicle. transmitting, by a first autonomous vehicle a vehicle identifier, ID, and vehicle information of a first autonomous vehicle to a cloud server over a network, wherein the cloud server is communicatively coupled to a plurality of autonomous vehicles; receiving, by the first autonomous vehicle a list of one or more vehicle identifiers, IDs, from the cloud server, the vehicle IDs identifying one or more autonomous vehicles that are within a predetermined geographic proximity of the first autonomous vehicle, wherein the cloud server maintains a neighboring vehicle data structure storing geographic neighboring information of the plurality of autonomous vehicles based on their respective vehicle information periodically received from the plurality of autonomous vehicles, and identifies the one or more autonomous vehicles using a nearest neighbor search algorithm, wherein the neighboring vehicle data structure comprises a k-dimensional, k-d, tree, and the k-d tree comprises a plurality of nodes in a hierarchical structure, each node corresponding to one of the plurality of autonomous vehicles managed by the cloud server, wherein the k-dimension includes latitude, longitude, and altitude, and traveling directions are integrated into tree nodes; and communicating, by the first autonomous vehicle with a second autonomous vehicle that is selected from a first list of the one or more autonomous vehicles via a wireless local area network to exchange an operational status of the first autonomous vehicle with the second autonomous vehicle.