51–60 of 144 posts
As for devising new signals which other drivers are supposed to watch to understand what the car plans to do, I'd say we need a lot more research to understand if this actually helps or just distracts.
"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.
"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.
I'm sort of intentionally being abrasive there though, as I think people drive too aggressively given the surroundings.
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…
"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' is referring to Ford. Rephrased, "Ford just needed people to believe wholeheartedly [that] Ford [was] using one"
A reporter apparently tried to talk to one of the drivers and they refused to acknowledge his presence: https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602
> and they refused to acknowledge his presence Well of course, anything else would have been a car seat cosplay fail!
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…
It's interesting, everybody is thinking about how this was used for pranks and films, but I immediately thought of the much more sinister attempts to flee east Germany. I was unable to find a photo, but I remember seeing a car that was modified so a person could be sewn into the seat in a Berlin Museum.