Agricultural machinery autonomous driving can improve work quality, enhance operational efficiency, reduce operating costs, and alleviate labor intensity. Autonomous driving technology for agricultural machinery is an important direction in the development of intelligent agricultural machinery systems. Driven by both policies and the market, China's autonomous driving technology for agricultural machinery has been rapidly developing and is gradually maturing through demonstration applications. The technological system for agricultural machinery autonomous driving is also being gradually established. Elementary technologies of agricultural machinery autonomous driving included environmental perception, working condition perception, decision-making and planning, lateral control, and longitudinal control. Firstly, the current status of key technology research for agricultural machinery autonomous driving was elaborated and the key scientific and technological issues that needed to be addressed were analyzed. And then the domestic and international research and application of agricultural machinery automatic driving products was introduced from the perspectives of automatic navigation technology and the integration and application of automatic driving systems. A comparison was made between the gap in grading standards and specifications for agricultural machinery autonomous driving and the intelligent connected vehicle industry, highlighting the urgent need for the classification of agricultural machinery autonomous driving. Finally, the main roles of agricultural machinery autonomous driving technology were summarized, and the future development directions for agricultural machinery autonomous driving were outlined. To address the challenges posed by the non-structured environment, high-precision agronomy, and time constraints in smart agricultural production, it was recommended to emphasize the dual requirements of precision operation and driving automation in agricultural production applications. Specifically, targeted efforts should be undertaken in the development of agricultural equipment autonomous driving technology, application demonstrations, and technological grading.