Human-centered design and evaluation of a workplace for the remote assistance of highly automated vehicles

Abstract

Remotely operating vehicles utilize the benefits of vehicle automation when fully automated driving is not yet possible. A human operator ensures safety and availability from afar and supports the vehicle automation when its capabilities are exceeded. The remote operator, conceptualized as remote assistant, fulfills the legal requirements in Germany as a Technical Supervisor to operate highly automated vehicles at Society of Automotive Engineers 4. To integrate the remote operator into the automated driving system, a novel user-centered human–machine interface (HMI) for a remote assistant’s workplace was developed and initially evaluated. The insights gained in this process were incorporated into the design of a workplace prototype for remote assistance. This prototype was tested in the study reported here by 34 participants meeting the professional background criteria for the role of Technical Supervisor according to the German law. Typical scenarios that may occur in highly automated driving and require remote assistance were created in a simulation environment. Even under elevated cognitive load induced by simultaneously engaging in a secondary task, participants were able to obtain sufficient situation awareness and quickly resolve the scenarios. The HMI also yielded favorable usability and acceptance ratings. The results of this study inform the iterative workplace development and further research on the remote assistance of highly automated vehicles.