You might be right. As time goes on, driverless cars will get better and better at the more difficult situations. It is only a matter of time.
“I wonder how they plan to account for something like a herd of deer who bust out from cover and run in front of a car. Human peripheral vision and a knowledge of local conditions might get you through whereas a camera/sonar system might not.”
An animal in the road is a fairly common condition that any automated car would need to be able to handle from the get go. I don't think multiple animals at once would be much more of a difficult problem to handle. The video I posted in comment #89 sheds some light on how these cars perceive objects.
It is pretty neat, and they seem to have a lot of things considered. Except all those damned deer in NW New Jersey! Not in the road, but flying out of the brush above the road in a deep cut, etc.
I’d love to be a ride-along test driver/co-pilot as long as I was in the driver’s seat. I often drive around town and see how little I can use my brakes, even in moderate traffic. Get off the gas, no brakes and then just blow by people when the light changes because they passed you on the way to the red light and had to stop.