A mysterious Ford Transit Connect was spotted driving around Arlington, Virginia last week without a driver.
This sparked a lot of interest as the community was excited about an autonomous vehicle being tested in their area. It also garnered a lot of attention as it’s not every day that see you a vehicle being driven without a driver.
This seemed like the end of the story until a transportation reporter from the local NBC affiliate caught up with the vehicle in question. This is where the story takes a weird turn as Adam Tuss discovered the driverless van actually had a driver who was disguised as a car seat.
The bizarre sight obviously raised a lot of questions, namely what kind of weirdo would drive around in a van disguised as a car seat. As Tuss later recounted, “I looked out and I said, ‘Oh my God, there’s a guy in a seat costume.'”
Thankfully, the incident isn’t as creepy as it seems as the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute eventually confirmed both the driver and the van were part of a study they are conducting to test people’s reactions to driverless vehicles.
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H/T to The Verge