'Self-driving' car in Virginia is actually just a man dressed up as a drivers' seat

The modern day equivalent of the Middle Age myth of the headless horseman — the demonic fairy who rode around carrying his own head — may just be some guy in a drivers’ seat costume.

Motorists in Arlington, Virginia, this week were shocked by an eery sight when their curious gaze landed in the drivers’ seat of a grey van sharing the roadways with them. Although the vehicle was in motion, there did not appear to be anyone behind the wheel.

An enterprising reporter caught up with the van, though, and solved the mystery. Upon approaching the vehicle on a rainy day this week, he noticed that two arms were sticking out from under a grey and black costume. The driver’s face and head were completely concealed by the costume, similar to a sports mascot.

“Brother, who are you? What are you doing? I’m with the news, dude,” reporter Adam Tuss, the reporter with NBC who came across the van, asked the driver. “Dude, can you pull over and we can talk for a second?”

But the driver’s seat didn’t say a word.

As it turns out, the deceptive driver was not some grim vehicle of death with the capability to end lives once he stops and says the name of a victim.

Instead, he was a part of a study being conducted on driverless cars by the Virginia Tech Transportation Institute. The driver was simply doing what he was told to do by his employers.

That educational institution is joined by Arlington County in conducting the test. The Virginia Department of Transportation is not involved in the test, and indicated that they had no knowledge of it. The Arlington Police Department said they were “shocked” by news of the van.

Arlington was chosen as a testing ground because the city and area has been identified as a potential test ground for real driverless cars, which are currently being developed and tested in the United States. Other cities like Pittsburgh have already begun realtime testing of driverless cars, albeit at a measured rate to analyze the technology in the real world to ensure safety.