Humans are frequently in this scenario, especially at night. For example, a reflection from a rural roadside mailbox's prism looks similar to the eyes of a deer, and shredded truck tire treads look similar to chunks of automotive bodywork debris. This doesn't invalidate your point about slowing down.
But we're asking a lot from this software (for good reasons), but humans commit similar leaps of faith of various severity on the roads daily -- failure to yield, failure to maintain following distance, assuming other drivers immediately adjacent to you will keep driving safely and carefully -- and only a small subset of these situations results in accidents. We're expecting an algorithm coded by humans to perform better than a complicated bioelectric system we barely understand.
Waymo has opted to commit to thoroughly understand its environment, which is why their cars drive in a manner that bears no resemblance to how humans actually drive. We as a society have to eventually reconcile the implications of the disconnect.
> reflection from a rural roadside mailbox's prism looks similar to the eyes of a deer
Deer hits a major cause of fatality out in the country. If your driving at night in deer country and you aren't eyes wide open then you are going to have an unhappy experience at some point. Their instincts are essentially the exact opposite of what they should do when encountering a car. They will stay in the middle of the road, and they will jump in front of you if startled.
But we're asking a lot from this software (for good reasons), but humans commit similar leaps of faith of various severity on the roads daily -- failure to yield, failure to maintain following distance, assuming other drivers immediately adjacent to you will keep driving safely and carefully -- and only a small subset of these situations results in accidents. We're expecting an algorithm coded by humans to perform better than a complicated bioelectric system we barely understand.
Waymo has opted to commit to thoroughly understand its environment, which is why their cars drive in a manner that bears no resemblance to how humans actually drive. We as a society have to eventually reconcile the implications of the disconnect.