Teleoperation: The Holy Grail to Solve Problems of Automated Driving? Sure, but Latency Matters

In the domain of automated driving, numerous (technological) problems were solved in recent years, but still many limitations are around that could eventually prevent the deployment of automated driving systems (ADS) beyond SAE level 3. A remote operating fallback authority might be a promising solution. In order for teleoperation to function reliably and universal, it will make use of existing infrastructure, such as cellular networks. Unfortunately, cellular networks might suffer from variable performance. In this work, we investigate the effects of latency on task performance and perceived workload for different driving scenarios. Results from a simulator study (N=28) suggest that latency has negative influence on driving performance and subjective factors and led to a decreased confidence in Teleoperated Driving during the study. A latency of about 300 ms already led to a deteriorated driving performance, whereas variable latency did not consequently deteriorate driving performance.