Autonomous Vehicle Traffic Delay Incident and Rapid Response

The paper focuses on a case study of a Cruise autonomous vehicle (AV) involved in a significant traffic delay incident in Austin, TX, in June 2023. The pre-programmed travel routes of the AVs avoided the major arterial streets and may not be the most direct or shortest paths. The incident event procedure and the interpretation of the remote assistance provided by the AV fleet operations control center (OCC) to the two Cruise vehicles are thoroughly discussed. The incident was caused by a group of illegally roadside-parked cars on a narrow street, and the difficulty of the Remote Assistance role is evaluated. This case study and the analysis illustrate that the extenuating circumstances of the incident and the difficulty of navigating around the blockage in the AV's travel path provided a good and reasonable resolution of the incident, representing what is now being called "Remote Assistance" in recent SAE-recommended practice standards.