[logfromblammo]

That brings to mind a study that I saw summarized, where the researcher put a fake turtle in a road and recorded the reactions of real drivers. While some would swerve to avoid, and a select few stopped their car and got out to help it across the road, there were also some who actively tried to hit the fake turtle with their cars.

I would assume that the automated system would overwhelmingly avoid any obstacle in the road, living or nonliving, except in situations where avoidance would create a greater danger to vehicle or occupants.

A slowly moving animal that does not occupy a large fraction of the lane width, is lower than the under-body clearance on most cars, and does not suddenly change its direction would overwhelmingly prefer automated vehicles. Squirrels, on the other hand, have a tendency to freak out and try to dodge when the car gets closer. The car might adjust to avoid one, only to have it juke underneath a tire at the last second. I doubt the car would do much more than to slightly adjust speed or move laterally within the bounds of the lane it currently occupies.

Great for turtles, but squirrels and rabbits don't have quite the right behavior profile to benefit from the likely collision avoidance strategy.