Roles in the Teleoperation of Highly Automated Vehicles in Public Transport

Abstract

Teleoperation is a promising approach to boost the introduction of highly automated driving. It transfers exceptionally challenging driving tasks from the vehicle’s automation to a human operator who remote-controls the automated vehicle (AV). Particularly in public transport, teleoperated driving could contribute significantly to flexible mobility solutions such as on-demand shuttle services on the “last mile” between a major hub of transport, e.g., a train station, and the final destination (Hamburger Hochbahn, 2021; RealLab Hamburg, 2020). In order to link teleoperated AVs with other means of transport and coordinate subtasks of teleoperated driving, facilities with distinct roles and responsibilities regarding the teleoperation of AVs, so-called Remote Operation Centers (ROCs), may facilitate safe and efficient AV operations embedded in public transport. Their structure und roles entailed are described in this paper. The ROCs will be responsible both for monitoring AV operations in a specified area overall and intervening in case of disturbances. Their architecture is based on the assumption that vehicles will be widely automated (SAE level 4 (Society of Automotive Engineers, 2021)), i.e., they will be operational under a plethora of Operational Design Domains (ODDs), covering most use cases. Interventions by the operator are therefore not critical for ensuring safety, as the automation will be able to conduct minimum risk maneuvers and bring itself to a safe halt without posing a threat to surrounding traffic. Rather than that, human operators will be able to extend the range of available ODDs. Thus, human intervention is optional but increases operational efficiency and passenger satisfaction. A ROC will be comprised of the following central roles: a central manager and overseer of operations, the Remote Coordinator (RC), several operators who execute direct driving tasks, the Remote Driving Operators (RDOs), and one or more Remote System Operators (RSOs) that maintain the backend of remote-operation, and a couple of peripheral roles. Each role entails a certain set of requirements, tasks and responsibilities and requires a distinct human-machine interaction (HMI) concept for a workstation.