I’m not seeing any speculation in any venue that the car’s LIDAR sensors worked or didn’t work. That’s what’s supposed to be the big deal with autonomous cars, that they have visual plus radar.
Did it even start to slow down? It’s not a viable system if it has zero recognition of a pedestrian in the middle of the road.
Oops, now that I’ve read the article, I may now consider myself an “expert”. :-)