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Ford disguised a man as a car seat to research self-driving
- riphay 9y agoReally 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.
- ProAm 9y agoSo they re-did a prank from 2013 but for science [1] [1] https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrJ8DxECbg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xVrJ8DxECbg
- mrspeaker 9y agoThe ol' car-seat-suit trick! That's how KITT from Knight Rider did it in 1982 as well! https://www.moviemistakes.com/entry91522 https://www.moviemistakes.com/entry91522
- supernumerary 9y agoDisguising yourself as a car seat also features in this episode of 'Sherlock', https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Thatchers https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Six_Thatchers
- shangxiao 9y agoA reporter apparently tried to talk to one of the drivers and they refused to acknowledge his presence: https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602 https://twitter.com/AdamTuss/status/894627339891609602
- unkown-unknowns 9y agoWhat an annoying reporter
- Jeremy1026 9y ago"I'm with the news, dude."
- jhgb 9y ago> and they refused to acknowledge his presence Well of course, anything else would have been a car seat cosplay fail!
- HillaryBriss 9y agolast thing that driver wanted to do was endanger their job. it was a very cush gig.
- brandon272 9y agoThis is hilarious to me for some reason.
- josefresco 9y ago"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.
- Ajedi32 9y agoYeah, it doesn't look like this disguise would work very well against someone sitting in the passenger seat.
- josefresco 9y agoFor a second I thought they put a passenger in the "lap" of the driver - but looking at the pics there's no way...
- jasonmaydie 9y agoThis 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-arlington-va-car-seat-costume-disguise https://www.theverge.com/2017/8/7/16109378/driverless-van-ar...
- deleted 9y ago[deleted]
- compuguy 9y agoThe local NBC channel (WRC-TV 4) covered it as well: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Driver-Dressed-Like-a-Seat-Spotted-Inside-Driverless-Van-439041863.html?_osource=SocialFlowTwt_DCBrand http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Driver-Dressed-Like-...
- icc97 9y agoWatching the video it's almost impossible to tell what the flickering of the lights mean. A much better idea seems the front brake lights mentioned by a couple of other commenters, plus a requirement for headlights if the car is on.
- VMG 9y agoJust as in Knight Rider! https://knightriderhistorians.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-fate-of-original-hero-car-revealed.html https://knightriderhistorians.blogspot.com/2013/12/the-fate-...
- michaelbuckbee 9y agoIt 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 https://youtu.be/ErrRhXItBWc?t=118
- daveguy 9y agoOr this drive thru prank a year earlier: https://youtu.be/xVrJ8DxECbg https://youtu.be/xVrJ8DxECbg I'm sure it had probably been done before that too. :) Even better when you "put a robot in the driver's seat": https://youtu.be/CdggQr05LAA https://youtu.be/CdggQr05LAA
- dsfyu404ed 9y agoThe slow "laptop in sleep mode" blink would be perfect for "I'm oblivious to the fact that I'm impeding traffic".
- agumonkey 9y ago* SPOILER * That's how they made Knight Rider "driverless" scenes (http://www.knightriderarchives.com/knight_rider/season_one/give_me_liberty_or_give_me_death/nitpicks/images/04238.jpg 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)
- otakucode 9y agoThis 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.
- B1FF_PSUVM 9y agoDon Norman said in a talk they also have done that at his UCSD outfit.
- josephpmay 9y agoThat's literally the same project this article is about
- bitwize 9y agoThis 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 research purposes, to solicit feedback about how Americans might feel about robots in the home -- especially robots that look and behave like humans. It was the 80s and we all thought that was coming Real Soon Now.
- influx 9y agoInteresting, I do recall that show, but can't find any corroborating info, sounds like a great urban legend though!
- thebrettd 9y agoAre you denigrating my Teddy Ruxpin?
- martey 9y agoThe unusual name ("The Small Wonder Joint Venture") is because the television show was the first product of a "joint venture" between 5 television stations [1], not because it was made by some secret home robotics manufacturer or marketing firm. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Program_Group https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/New_Program_Group
- Fricken 9y agoAlso, Booger produced 'wonder joints' to liven things up during the party scene in 1984's 'Revenge Of The Nerds' https://youtu.be/WEp0fte3B8o https://youtu.be/WEp0fte3B8o
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- BjoernKW 9y agoThe setup reminds me of a pretty weird story called "The Human Chair": https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Chair https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Human_Chair
- dpflan 9y agoSeems 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.
- dpflan 9y agoIt's kind of funny imagining a robot / self-driving car program going through driver's ed and taking the driver's license test with a human scoring it. Will car models and algorithms be evaluated like this too? :)
- firefoxd 9y agoNew Turing test: Is the driver in the car in front of you a human driver or a computer.
- mykeliu 9y agoPeople 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 http://wendyju.com/publications/RO-MAN2016-Rothenbucher.pdf [2] http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-ghostdriver-ucsd-20170403-story.html http://www.sandiegouniontribune.com/news/science/sd-me-ghost... [3] https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/08/heres-the-real-science-behind-that-fake-driverless-car/536268/ https://www.citylab.com/transportation/2017/08/heres-the-rea...
- kornork 9y agoSo what were the results? Are pedestrians jerks? Do other cars cut them off?
- MrBlue 9y agoGoing off on a tangent here but is the HDR filter really necessary for those images? What is gained by using it? /rant
- zaroth 9y agoLooks like they put a cylon indicator on it? Not terrifying at all... 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.
- nomoral 9y agoMVP
- ATsch 9y agoIt'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.
- london888 9y agoYes - it happened, also on the Mexico/US border, this has a guy as a car seat but leads with woman in a dashboard: http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/dashboard.asp http://www.snopes.com/photos/automobiles/dashboard.asp
- usaphp 9y agoI wonder how is it possible to find someone hidden in a dashboard? Were it dogs that found her?
- nobodyorother 9y agoI'm paraphrasing the news report because it's been a few years, but: The border patrol agent became suspicious when the driver opened the glove box to retrieve his registration and a hand reached out from within the box to give it to him.
- stcredzero 9y agoSometimes, one can be too helpful.
- nobodyorother 9y agoI can't wait until somebody patents "signaling pedestrians" and we all have to deal with brand-specific signaling mechanisms. Thank Zod QWERTY was invented so long ago. /cynicism
- jedberg 9y agoOff topic, but man do I hate looping gifs in my articles. It's so incredibly distracting. Sure, play it once, maybe even twice. But an endless loop? That's just unnecessary.
- Sujan 9y agoIt's not even very good communication. As there often is no clear start and end, when I scroll to the gif I have to watch it at least 2 or 3 times until I really know what is going on, where the loop starts and where it ends. Simple video would be so much better.
- ramasterson 9y agoLeslie Nielsen did this forever ago: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJ3lx43lMg https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xqJ3lx43lMg
- trhway 9y agoa programmer disguised as HM Aeron chair ... probably makes for more serene looking open floor office, and also minimizes the chances of the others bugging you with various stuff.
- joshdance 9y agoReminds me of the magician who goes through drive throughs in that costume. I like the idea of an indicator showing what the car is 'doing'.
- askvictor 9y agoThe conspiracy theorist in me figures this kind of research will be used by companies that are falling behind in the self driving car race (no pun intended) to get governments to regulate against self driving cars.
- foota 9y agoThis article confused me a lot more before I realized Ford meant the company, not the individual.
- manmal 9y agoInterestingly, it was the same for me. I was really confused for a few seconds until "self-driving" sank in and it became clear that Henry Fore could not have been alive for that.
- userbinator 9y agoIn Henry's time, "self-driving" would probably be more likely used to describe a brick on the accelerator.
- vincengomes 9y agoAlso the first Ford that came to my mind was Ford from Westworld, not the carmaker.
- neves 9y agoIn London, with their right positioned drivers, more than once I got a scare of the phantom drivers. :-)
- harveywi 9y agoNot quite the promotion to deputy chair that he had expected.
- ourmandave 9y agoPrediction: this is the sell out costume for Halloween.
- rurounijones 9y agoI have been in a situation when I was mid-crosswalk when an idiot came screaming round a long shallow corner too fast (fast enough to have the white-line between his wheels). I had a 50/50 choice. Keep going or run back. In the 3 or so seconds I had we made eye contact and I saw him return his eyes to my front (i.e. he was trying to get back on to his side of the road) so I moved backwards. Not sure what I would have done if it were a self-driving car and unable to do the visual communication (Although the entire point might be moot since a self-driver wouldn't be in that situation)
- yanni79 9y agoThis is what it looked like on the news: http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Why-a-Half-Car-Seat-Half-Man-Was-on-the-Road_Washington-DC-439081263.html http://www.nbcwashington.com/news/local/Why-a-Half-Car-Seat-...
- ForFreedom 9y agoOnly successful if they can cross the Mexico border. :D