Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
1–10 of 144 posts
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#2Really interesting study, would have liked to see some preliminary or even anecdotal findings discussed in the article.
I've seen some Youtubers pranking drive-through windows in the same way and they're pretty funny at the very least.
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#3So they re-did a prank from 2013 but for science [1]
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#4A reporter apparently tried to talk to one of the drivers and they refused to acknowledge his presence: https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#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 in many cases you can't see the driver's head, let alone eyes.
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#6Just as in Knight Rider! https://knightriderhistorians.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-fate-...
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#7"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…
Yeah, it doesn't look like this disguise would work very well against someone sitting in the passenger seat.
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#8It 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 gets lost with SDVs.
Also, I really feel like they stole this idea from Raid 2 https://youtu.be/ErrRhXItBWc?t=118
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#9"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…
Yeah, it doesn't look like this disguise would work very well against someone sitting in the passenger seat.
For a second I thought they put a passenger in the "lap" of the driver - but looking at the pics there's no way...
Re: Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
#10This 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, but got a more substantive statement from the org doing the research.