The main objective of this work is to identify the end-gas combustion mode transition under different initial thermodynamic conditions and to focus on the role of pressure waves in autoignition formation and detonation development in the confined space by a group of two-dimensional (2D) numerical simulations with detailed chemistry of H-2/air mixture. Pressure waves with different strengths are obtained by the flame acceleration in closed chambers with and without obstacles under three different initial temperatures. The results indicate that with the increase of initial temperature, there exist three different end-gas autoignition transition modes: autoignition promoted by strong flame acceleration, autoignition suppressed by weak flame acceleration and autoignition independent of flame acceleration. It is also shown that there are three types of end-gas autoignition-induced detonation initiation: (1) detonation initiated directly by the pressure wave generated from the flame propagation; (2) detonation initiated directly by the pressure wave generated from other hot-spot autoignition; (3) autoignition to detonation transition based on the reactivity gradient theory. Meanwhile, to further identify the autoignition transition mode under continuous variation of pressure wave intensity and initial temperature, an idealized physical model, with the Mach number of the pressure wave as the link between the flame propagation duration and autoignition time of the end-gas, is proposed. It is shown that the autoignition can be suppressed by the elevated flame speed when the pressure wave is weak, while it cannot be prevented intrinsically when the temperature of the end-gas is high or the pressure wave is strong enough. Moreover, different autoignition propagation modes are identified from Bradley's diagram, including deflagration, developing detonation and thermal explosion, and the combined effects of reactivity and pressure wave strength are discussed as well. (C) 2020 The Combustion Institute. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.