Ford's 'self-driving' delivery vans bamboozle the public for good reason
Whether or not the car actually drives itself isn't the point.
In a blog post on Medium, Ford said that it has deployed its "self-driving" delivery vehicles to Miami and Miami Beach.
In conjunction with Postmates, the automaker wants to see how regular Joes and Janes react to a delivery that arrives in an autonomous vehicle, even if the one in question technically isn't.
While these Transit Connects might be gussied up to look like self-driving cars, there's actually a trained driver in control the entire time.
Folks using Postmates to get something delivered might have the option to have their package arrive by one of Ford's development vehicles.
When the vehicle arrives, the user gets a text message, at which point they come outside, plug an access code into the side of the vehicle and retrieve their package.
Audio and visual prompts will help guide the person through the process.
This whole experiment is about seeing how customers interact with vehicles and not people in the course of parcel delivery.
Ford already started a similar program in conjunction with Domino's using Fusion sedans in various markets for "autonomous" pizza delivery.
Ford and other automakers have touted logistics as one of the major ways that self-driving vehicles can be used.
Keep on scrolling to check out even more pictures of Ford's new "self-driving" delivery vans.