21–30 of 144 posts
"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…
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…
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…
The good ones do
"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 [...] 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…
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 of these are actually used in practice): http://www.abate-il.org/Backroads/signals.html
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,…