41–50 of 144 posts
This isn't even the most elaborate market-research stunt I've seen. Some of you older folk may remember an 80s sitcom called Small Wonder, which was a typical American suburbia family sitcom, except the youngest daughter, Vicki, was a robot. What I found unusual about the show was its copyright message: "©1987 The Small Wonder Joint Venture". In later years I found out that the show was produced in part for market re…
A reporter apparently tried to talk to one of the drivers and they refused to acknowledge his presence: https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602
What an annoying reporter
"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? I certainly do - most commonly when merging into a congested lane from a side street, stopping and making eye contact helps understand if everybody is paying attention (the merger can move forward and the merged is leaving a space open for them). Motorcyclists also have a pretty large vocabulary (I'm not sure how many…
"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...
This is really quite common. I read an article about a car in Pittsburgh where a driver was similarly disguised in order to research specifically other peoples reactions to driverless vehicles on the road. In the article I read, I believe it occurred in Pittsburgh, PA and the researcher was affiliated with a university (maybe Carnegie Melon?). The reporter was able to speak with the costumed researcher just briefly,…
"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 [...] really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? Yes. Consciously, at every vehicle at an intersection, to make sure they aren't going to run me over. Same on a bike. Other drivers? IDK, its harder through 2 windshields.
Seems like they need to turn the cameras inward too (or has this been done already?); they can start observing "good" drivers providing signs to other drivers to then learn how to communicate a driving decision better.
A reporter apparently tried to talk to one of the drivers and they refused to acknowledge his presence: https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602
Well of course, anything else would have been a car seat cosplay fail!
Earlier quoted context omitted.
> do pedestrians [...] really make "eye contact" with drivers to gauge their intention? Yes. Consciously, at every vehicle at an intersection, to make sure they aren't going to run me over. Same on a bike. Other drivers? IDK, its harder through 2 windshields.
An electric car with an empty driver seat sitting at an intersection would be especially bad; when cross the street I would interpret that as a parked car, especially if it was by the curb (for either left or a right on a one-way street). Hopefully the car would be smart enough not to hit me but I don't want to have to start staring deeply at every parked car, trying to intuit if it is a robot about to pull away.
edit: also, I feel like if we add new light signals for acceleration, for example, it would be nice to add that to all cars.