Last month we covered a "driverless" car roaming Virginia streets that turned out to really just be a normal car with the driver hidden inside a seat suit. Today, I got a chance to try the seat suit out for myself. You can't see my face, but this is a picture of me giving the thumbs-up sign from inside the suit.

The research was led by Andy Schaudt, a researcher at the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute, in partnership with Ford. Unfortunately, they wouldn't let me take a test drive. Schaudt told me that they put their drivers through hours of training before letting them loose on public roads, and there wasn't time to give me the necessary training.

Still, just from sitting in the seat, I could tell that driving the vehicle would be awkward. The suit is designed for the driver's arms to rest on his or her lap, gripping the steering wheel from below. Lifting my arms would cause the flimsy front of the suit to fold, ruining the illusion. So drivers were trained to turn the wheel gingerly while keeping their arms near the bottom. The study also added an extension to the turn signal so drivers could reach it without raising their arms.

Ford

Ford

Ford

Ford

Ford

On the other hand, visibility was surprisingly good. The top of the suit had a wrap-around visor with enough room inside that I could comfortably turn my head. I could easily see to my left and right. The suit did block drivers from looking over their shoulders, so they have to rely on mirrors and the car's blind-spot detection sensors to warn of approaching vehicles.

Why Ford sponsored a fake self-driving car

At a briefing at Ford's Washington, DC, offices, Ford announced that the fake driverless car was really a research collaboration between Ford and the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. Ford and VTTI wanted to learn how ordinary pedestrians would react if suddenly confronted with a car that appeared to have no driver in it. And since Ford doesn't have an actual self-driving car yet—at least not one they feel comfortable putting on the road with no safety driver—they decided to create a vehicle that merely looks like it's self-driving.

The fake driverless car drove a variety of routes in the Virginia suburbs of Washington, DC. It also dropped people off at airports and navigated parking garages.

Researchers are still crunching the data, but Virginia Tech's Andy Schaudt said that most pedestrians and other drivers didn't pay much attention to the vehicle as it passed them on public roads. There was important exception, however: NBC local news reporter Adam Tuss spotted the vehicle on the roads last month and captured a video showing the driver's arms protruding from the bottom of the seat suit.

At today's briefing, Schaudt said he was proud that the driver didn't break character. He didn't take off his mask or acknowledge Tuss—he just continued staring straight ahead. Schaudt also said he alerted Arlington County officials of the test. The car was never pulled over, though one police officer shook his head as he drove by on a motorcycle, according to Schaudt.

One goal of the research is to develop standardized ways for self-driving cars to signal to other cars and pedestrians—a substitute for the eye contact and hand signals that human drivers sometimes rely on.

The prototype car had a row of white lights mounted at the top of the windshield, and they could flash in different patterns to indicate different driving situations. For example, the lights would move from side to indicate that a vehicle is "about to yield to a full stop."

Ford hopes to work with other major automakers to develop an international standard for these signals so that future pedestrians and motorists can tell at a glance what these signals mean.