Defining and Developing the Role of a Future Autonomous Vehicle (AV) Teleoperator from a Human Factors Perspective

Technological innovations are enabling road vehicles to move towards ever-increasing levels of autonomy, which gradually moved the task of operating the vehicle away from the occupants. As the move towards fully autonomuous (or 'driverless') cars continues, this will also need to be supported by the design of infrastructures to allow autonomous vehicles (AV's) to operate safely and successfully. Teleoperation, referring to the control of AV's by a remotely located operator, is a growing area of interest associated with AV development. Research is required to understand the possible roles of a teleoperator in supporting the function of future AV's in a range of scenarios. Potential roles for the teleoperator may include taking control in situations where the vehicle is unable to, communication with emergency services and road network controllers, or communication with the AV users for driving-level assistance or experiential-level services. There is great potential for this work to shape the design of work for teleoperators, from defining tasks to the requirements of workstations. As the role of an commercial or large scale AV teleoperator does not yet exist in reality, this is an ideal opportunity to take a Human Factors based approach to inform job design from the earliest stages. The research will be of interest to those looking to develop future AV services (e.g. autonomous taxi fleets and truck platooning). It may also further understanding in Human Factors and Human Computer Interaction (HCI) fields around the design of future work, including system-human task allocation and novel interaction styles