Um, you actually missed the point.

Self-driving cars see the dog and the child somewhat close to the road and classify them as a hazard IMMEDIATELY and start adjusting for them. And, if they lose track of them, the car goes into "Unseen Idiot" mode. You don't need the dog running out to focus their attention like a human does.

Self-driving cars don't have the attention span problems that humans have. Self-driving cars can watch more than 7 +/- 2 objects (much more) without diverting their attention.

Which means that self-driving cars can watch all 6 of those little kids walking, as well as the 4 on bicycles, and the two playing with the dog over there.

This is why self-driving cars will win ... and quickly.

Additionally, a self-driving car doesn't even need to care about recognizing children and dogs as members of their respective species. All they need is to notice there is a moving object, and to have some expectation of its maximum velocity. It's enough to compute the envelope that lets it safely avoid collision.

Unless it's a bird. Or an unusually large leaf. Or a plastic shopping bag in the wind.

This stuff is harder than it looks at first glance. Hence the article.

> a self-driving car doesn't even need to care about recognizing children and dogs as members of their respective species.

Yes it does. A dog can be run over in order to avoid colliding with a human; the reverse is not true.

Waymo is capable of making these kinds of inferences, though I don't know if it can handle that specific case. From the safety report:

> Waymo’s planner can also think several steps ahead. For example, if our software perceives that an adjacent lane ahead is closed due to construction, and predicts that a cyclist in that lane will move over, our planner can make the decision to slow down or make room for the cyclist well ahead of time.

https://storage.googleapis.com/sdc-prod/v1/safety-report/way...

These edge cases are pretty likely hard coded, and human inference is much more general.

Solution easy. If anything at all happens, hit the breaks.

Drive slowly and conservatively, and never ever be in a situation where physics would prevent the car from slowing down in time.

Good luck with that.

I would stop for the dog...

Presumably there was no need to stop for the dog -- perhaps it was already well across the road before a speed adjustment would be needed.