The author is also probably used to driving with tens of minutes of latency. I would guess the current Mars driving experience is more of a planning experience,

The author is also probably used to driving with tens of minutes of latency. I would guess the current Mars driving experience is more of a planning experience, where an unexpected obstacle ruins the plan and creates an hour of delay from replanning and recommunicating. Whereas a human driver on site would have just steered slightly to the left and not thought twice about it.