Guy Dressed As His Car Seat Pranks An Entire Town

The sight of what looked to be a fully autonomous van testing without a driver present on the streets of Arlington, Virginia last week caused a bit of a buzz. But the truth turned out to be weirder than it is futuristic.

Local news blog ARLnow.com was the first to spot the Ford Transit cruising around the city featuring a light bar and camera rig on the windshield, blacked-out windows, and most importantly, the apparent lack of people in the van. Reporters wondered whether the autonomous van could be tied to Virginia’s recent decision open up certain stretches of highway for testing self-driving technology. But it was highly unlikely considering there’s a lack of lidar and other external sensors that other autonomous cars rely on. And can you really get away with having no humans in the car at all? As it turns out, no. An NBC Washington reporter saw the van driving and caught up to it at a stoplight and discovered a man wearing a car seat disguise behind the wheel. He tries to ask the driver a few questions, but the man never acknowledges his presence. So what’s the deal? The van and its driver’s seat are reportedly part of a Virginia Tech Transportation Institute study on autonomous cars. This little experiment was likely tied to exploring the public’s response to self-driving cars. Would it freak you out to see a car with no driver?

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