Researchers at Coventry University have led the development of new standards for remotely monitoring autonomous vehicles in the UK.
Acting as technical authors for a new guide, they have helped establish good practices for the remote monitoring, assistance and operation of self-driving vehicles.
The guide, entitled BSI Flex 1887 – Human Factors for Remote Operation of Vehicles – Guide v1.0 was developed by the British Standards Institution (BSI) and supported by the UK Government’s Centre for Connected and Autonomous Vehicles (CCAV).
This follows the UK government’s recently launched Automated Vehicles Act 2024.
To create the guide, Professors Stewart Birrell, Kevin Vincent and Dr Adam Bogg from the university’s Research Centre for Future Transport and Cities (FTC) gathered feedback from industry leaders and applied their own expertise in human factors research.
Professor Stewart Birrell, Centre Director for Future Transport and Cities said:Remote operations are an essential building block for large-scale deployment of self-driving vehicles onto UK roads. Our research here in FTC, which is disseminated through this BSI Flex 1887, puts the human operator front and centre of remote operations, ensuring they have the right tools and information needed to effectively monitor and assist self-driving vehicles.
BSI Flex 1887 provides practical guidance to help businesses address challenges in operating autonomous vehicles.
It emphasises the selection and training of remote operating staff, the organisation’s end-to-end responsibilities and fundamental workstation design principles.
Key considerations include:
- Ensuring qualified personnel are selected and adequately trained for remote operation
- Implementing effective strategies for assessing and maintaining operator performance
- Following specific guidelines to enhance efficiency and comfort in operators’ working environments
- Optimising the performance and coordination of remote operators through effective management.
BSI Flex primarily focuses on road applications, but can also provide guidance for controlled environments lacking specific standards.
This work builds on Coventry University’s research, learning and expertise in its Human Factors Group, which is currently used in the CCAV-funded project, SCALE to bring self-driving shuttle services to the West Midlands.
Matteo Novati, Programme Lead for BSI’s CAM standards programme said:Standards have the potential to play a key role in realising society's safe transition to self-driving vehicles and ultimately accelerating progress towards a sustainable future.
Our CAM programme has recently focused on filling an important gap in standards supporting remote operations of road vehicles. Human Factors for Remote Operation of Vehicles – Guide v1.0 (BSI Flex 1887) is a very welcome piece of this puzzle and has already attracted much attention from industry and policymakers in the UK and globally. This guidance on human factors such as operators’ competencies and workstation design has been highlighted as a priority since our early engagement activities and aims to support deployment and imminent work on secondary legislation.
