This involved a self-driving car with a human operator at the wheel to deal with "extenuating circumstances" like this very thing. The real question is whether this operating configuration impaired the vehicle's ability to take any avoidance measures in a case like this.
Here's another question I have that relates to the effectiveness of self-driving vehicle technology:
How is the vehicle supposed to react when it approaches a pedestrian who is waiting to cross the street legally at a marked crosswalk? If the pedestrian isn't in the street, can the vehicle even "see" her?
Good question. Probably a combination of many things to sense the surroundings. My question is, if they record video of what's going on around the car (I'm sure they do) in order to tweak the programming as new situations arise, do they also record video of the person who is supposed to intervene in these types of situations. This occurred at 10 PM, was this person alert, paying attention to the road, and as ready as possible to intervene? When I took driver training in the 1980s, my instructor had a separate brake pedal for his use, and boy was he on it when needed.
“How is the vehicle supposed to react when it approaches a pedestrian who is waiting to cross the street legally at a marked crosswalk? If the pedestrian isn’t in the street, can the vehicle even “see” her? “
How is a human driver supposed to react when they approacy a pedestrian who is waiting to cross the street legally at a marked crosswalk if the pedestrian isn’t in the street?
OTOH, I saw a video a few weeks ago of a car tracking pedestrians on the sidewalks.