Technical report of the working group "Research Needs in Teleoperation"

Abstract

Today, both in-vehicle human drivers and automated driving systems (ADS) can be in charge of driving the vehicle. In addition, in the near future, it will be possible to drive a vehicle equipped with Level 4 or Level 5 ADS from a remote position, or to provide information to such a vehicle from a remote position. This new form of vehicle motion control is known as teleoperation. In 2021, Germany has introduced the possibility to provide in- formation to a Level 4 or Level 5 ADS-equipped vehicle: According to the German Road Traffic Act (StVG), this so-called remote assistance is performed by the technical supervisor within the meaning of §1d (3) StVG. At the time of writing this report, the direct influence on the execution of vehicle motion control, i.e. remote driving, is not legally regulated yet, and has only been possible in the context of individually authorised test drives in public road traffic. Remote driving covers a wide range of potentially possible future use cases: Examples are the distribution of car-sharing vehicles in public place via remote driving, or transporting goods via remote driving as "hub-to-hub" transport, and much more. It is also conceivable that remote driving adds value to Level 4 or Level 5 ADS-equipped vehicles when they are provided with remote driving to drive through complex trip sections that the ADS cannot handle yet. This technical report formulates open research questions relevant to remote assistance and remote driving. For a socially accepted, safe introduction of this new form of vehicle motion control, the functionally reliable design of the vehicle technology is essential. Furthermore, it is crucial that the respective task that is to be performed remotely, can be well performed by a person from a distance, and that this person has appropriate skills and fitness to drive for the tasks to be performed. The connection via communication technology between the vehicle and the workstation is a constitutive component of teleoperation, and as such, is also focus of this report. This results in five focus areas into which this report is divided.