Humans drivers and self-driving companies that creates such hit-and-run situations should be prosecuted.
So the court can determine what to do next (jail, insurance, etc or just nothing). It does not matter if they hit an object, a pet or a child who didn’t look while crossing the street.
Perhaps assign a safety driver that puts its own driving license and criminal liability on the line, so the company cannot evade responsibility.
> Hitting a pet / animal should be treated the same as hitting a child? No
I think the point is you don't know for certain what you hit if you hit and run. The car should have enough collision detection to know when it's hit something.
That said, this story is sending up red flags with the "allegedly" in the title and lack of evidence beyond hearsay.
I mean, you can riff through the comments of some Mission-local Instagram posts about this incident. There are plenty of eyewitnesses, including someone who was behind the Waymo in question. I'm sure the "allegedly" is there for legal reasons.
Your safest bet is to protect as wide as possible the people and pets around you, today it is an object, tomorrow a pet, and eventually a child.
Pushing companies to investigate and take responsibility, and report these accidents is going to overall to improve reliability of the system.
The reality is that if you do not put strong punishments, these companies wont have the incentive to fix it, or they will push these priorities way lower on the to-do list.
Perhaps assign a safety driver that puts its own driving license and criminal liability on the line, so the company cannot evade responsibility.