I just saw this very funny article about the "autonomous" vehicle research being done by the university I work for.

carseatsuit.jpg

They are disguising people to look like car seats so that the car looks empty. In other words, they’re spoofing autonomous cars. While that is somewhat hilarious, I can see the merit of this. I’m not sure that cars will have the same form when they’re moving around pedestrians unoccupied, but whatever. It’s probably interesting to research related behavior and attitudes just because so much of the topic is unknown.

Update 2017-08-09: Is this becoming a weird fad?