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Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

techcrunch.com

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Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#31

Post by user_taken »

josefresco wrote: post #5

"they just needed people to believe wholeheartedly they were using one." Don't they mean "seeing one" instead of "using one"? Or am I missing something? "fill in gaps where we currently communicate via subtle gestures, eye contact and other less obvious mechanisms." This also struck me as odd - do pedestrians and other drivers really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? I guess it's possible, but…

Surely they weren't having people sit on the guys lap.. This would be a great way to judge other's reactions though. I could see people who had never seen a self driving car, paying more attention to the spectacle than actually driving.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#33

Post by agumonkey »

michaelbuckbee wrote: post #8

It sounds goofy, but this strikes me as really clever. Compared to almost anything else with self driving cars adding a few indicators to outwardly show what it's going to do next (for pedestrians and other drivers) is a huge win. There is a fair amount of waving for someone else to go first at a turn, seeing if a driver is distracted (on their phone) at a stop, making eye contact while using a cross walk etc that ge…

* SPOILER *

That's how they made Knight Rider "driverless" scenes (http://www.knightriderarchives.com/knight_rider/season_one/g... <= can't find a clear shot, but if you find episodes online, it's pretty easy to see the double depth seat and raised up armrests)

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#35

Post by ltjkid »

josefresco wrote: post #5

"they just needed people to believe wholeheartedly they were using one." Don't they mean "seeing one" instead of "using one"? Or am I missing something? "fill in gaps where we currently communicate via subtle gestures, eye contact and other less obvious mechanisms." This also struck me as odd - do pedestrians and other drivers really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? I guess it's possible, but…

They(Ford) just needed people to believe wholeheartedly that they(Ford) were using one.

Ford was using the car. The people were seeing it. The second "they" in that sentence is referring to Ford, not the people.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#36

Post by mikestew »

josefresco wrote: post #5

"they just needed people to believe wholeheartedly they were using one." Don't they mean "seeing one" instead of "using one"? Or am I missing something? "fill in gaps where we currently communicate via subtle gestures, eye contact and other less obvious mechanisms." This also struck me as odd - do pedestrians and other drivers really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? I guess it's possible, but…

do pedestrians and other drivers really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention?

They do, and it's even advised by some. But I'm here to tell you that the eyes lie. I've had people look me directly in the eye and still pull out in front of me.

Look at the wheels. The wheels will always tell you what the vehicle is going to do.

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#37

Post by [deleted] »

jasonmaydie wrote: post #12
josefresco wrote: post #5

"they just needed people to believe wholeheartedly they were using one." Don't they mean "seeing one" instead of "using one"? Or am I missing something? "fill in gaps where we currently communicate via subtle gestures, eye contact and other less obvious mechanisms." This also struck me as odd - do pedestrians and other drivers really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? I guess it's possible, but…

This was actually in the news about a mysterious van with a driver pretending to be self driving. https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/7/16109378/driverless-van-ar...

[deleted]

Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving

#38

Post by mykeliu »

People in the comments are making references to prank videos and film techniques, but this type of research study has also been conducted multiples times in the last few years by institutions such as Stanford [1], UC San Diego [2], Virginia Tech [3], and more.

[1] http://wendyju.com/publications/RO-MAN2016-Rothenbucher.pdf

[2] http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-ghost...

[3] https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/08/heres-the-rea...

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