[wongarsu]

The car would have had time to come to a stop if it had started breaking when the deer became visible. That said the collision only became inevitable when the deer dashed forward in the last second (literally the last second of its life).

The car could have reacted better and likely prevented the hit, but if a human had been the only driver nobody would have even suggested that the driver was at fault.

[smoyer]

I've hit several deer but only killed one animal precisely because I slow down when I see them walking. I've NOT hit dozens that have wandered into my lane so I'd say I have a pretty good track record.

[crooked-v]

The difference here between the human and the car is that it's completely acceptable to require perfect attention and focus at all times from the car.

[jeroenhd]

Honestly, I disagree. A human could've spotted the deer from far away and could've made the decision to slow down or stop so that the deer could cross safely.

When there are other cars around or when the animal would've jumped in front of the car before you could react, I'd say the driver can't be blamed for hitting the animal because there was no reasonably alternative. In this case, breaking and turning on the hazards would've been a perfectly fine solution. This deer didn't have to die and a human driver could've (should've) avoided a collision.

The deer is just an example of the system failing, though. It shows that Tesla's wannabe-self driving is incapable of dealing with animals near the road. A small deer like this could be hit safely, but when a car doesn't try to break for something bigger and heavier, people could easily die. You run over birds and bunnies, but don't even try to drive through a horse. That thing is going straight through your windshield when you hit it, so you'd better risk getting rear-ended when a runaway horse walks onto the road. You're going to need one of those death mobiles like a Cybertruck that doesn't do those fancy "crumple zones" or "safety glass" to make it through anything larger than an adult boar without risking a crash, so any full self-driving system should be able to anticipate large animals near the road (or shut down in areas where large animals are known to cross roads).

[InTheArena]

I've totaled a car because of a deer jumping in front of my vehicle. Swerved, and flipped the car right over. That's not out of the realm of possibility in this video. If the car had swerved, and hit a decline, it takes remarkably little to flip a car.

Well not a tesla. You have to really work to flip them, but the point stands.

This despite being taught about danger of animals, and living in a place with a large wild population.

Your brain does not process images outside of the immediate distance in front of you nearly as fast as you think it does. I had a good four seconds that I could have "seen" the dear, but it was only when it was directly in my path that I realized what was going on.

When you are watching youtube, you are staring right at it. When you are driving a car, chances are you looking straight ahead.