Click, Don't Steer: A Quantitative Comparison of Tele-Driving and Tele-Assistance User Interfaces for Remote Operation of Autonomous Vehicles

While autonomous vehicles (AVs) continue to advance and reshape modern transportation, they remain unable to navigate all traffic conditions without human input, highlighting the need for remote human intervention in edge-case scenarios. Two major teleoperation paradigms have emerged to address this need: tele-driving and tele-assistance. In tele-driving, remote operators (ROs) continuously control the AV through direct access to its actuators. In tele-assistance, ROs provide high-level instructions through a specialized interface, with low-level maneuvers delegated to the AV. We conducted a quantitative comparison of these paradigms, examining four edge-case scenarios: one uses a steering wheel and pedals, the other employs discrete high-level commands through a Wizard-of-Oz methodology. We measured mental workload, situation awareness, time completion, and overall user experience (UX). Results indicate that the tele-assistance interface reduced operators’ mental workload and improved situation awareness, suggesting the need for further development of tele-assistance interfaces.