Google engineers are trying to make sure that their autonomous cars are extra cautious around children.

The company explained in a blog post over the weekend that engineers had asked employees and their little trick-or-treating ghosts and goblins to trek around some parked autonomous cars. That gave the cars’ sensors and software extra practice time recognizing kids in different shapes and sizes — and even costumes and masks.

“Halloween’s a great time to get some extra learning done,” wrote the team from Google’s Self-Driving Car Project. “We teach our cars to drive more cautiously around children. When our sensors detect children — costumed or not — in the vicinity, our software understands that they may behave differently.”

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