As a human, if I saw a plastic bag blow into the street at night I'd slow down until I was sure it wasn't an animal or something. Seems like basically the same process.
Sure, but if you were on a highway, would you slam on the brakes? I hope not.
There's a calculation here of balancing the perceived risk of an obstruction with the consequences of avoiding it or braking in time. Drivers have to make this decision all the time, on a highway they will generally assume it's safer to hit most things than swerve or panic brake, because it's mostly likely not that dangerous to collide with.
At least one stat I saw from AAA is that ~40% of the deaths from road debris result from drivers swerving to avoid them.
There's a calculation here of balancing the perceived risk of an obstruction with the consequences of avoiding it or braking in time. Drivers have to make this decision all the time, on a highway they will generally assume it's safer to hit most things than swerve or panic brake, because it's mostly likely not that dangerous to collide with.
At least one stat I saw from AAA is that ~40% of the deaths from road debris result from drivers swerving to avoid them.