The current technological and practical achievements in shield tunneling construction are evaluated with particular focus on shield automatic driving. Also, the developments in theoretical research are summarized based on rock and soil identification, shield attitude control, and ground settlement control. Thereafter, a hierarchical automatic driving control system and a control method for data, mechanism, and experience fusion are proposed. A case study is conducted on the ZhiYu shield automatic excavation and control system. The exploration results of the shield automatic driving technology including the control link design, the model structure of the core control algorithm for attitude and settlement, and the application of the system in actual engineering practice are explored. Finally, the challenges in shield automatic driving technology are discussed and the future development trends are predicted.