Mobile robot path planning has passed through multiple phases of development and took up several challenges. Up to now and with the new technology in hands, it becomes less complicated to conduct path planning for mobile robots and avoid both static and dynamic obstacles, so that collision-free navigation is ensured. Thorough state of the art review analysis with critical scrutiny of both safe and optimal paths for autonomous vehicles is addressed in this study. Emphasis is given to several developed techniques based using sampling algorithms, node-based optimal algorithms, mathematic model-based algorithms, bio-inspired algorithms, which includes neural network algorithms, and then multi-fusion-based algorithms, which combine different methods to overcome the drawbacks of each. All of these approaches consider different conditions and they are used for multiple domains.