Isn't this just training data for when they target larger meatbags?
Waymo chalks up another four-legged casualty on San Francisco streets
Self-driving car company Waymo has confirmed that one of its vehicles ran over a dog in San Francisco on Sunday. The passenger inside the car at the time blew the whistle, saying that the incident attracted a crowd and left their kids crying and their partner screaming. The dog, which the passenger described as being of a …
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 16:35 GMT vtcodger
In defense of Waymo
In fairness, when I checked a few months ago, Waymo -- unlike certain other autonomous vehicle operations -- has only ever been involved in one fatal accident. And Waymo was not at fault in that one. The Waymo car was stopped at a red light along with several other vehicles when a Tesla travelling at an estimated 95mph (153kph) drove into them. Hopefully Waymo will develop as much respect for the lives of wildlife and pets as it seems to have for humans as well as parked emergency vehicles -- notoriously a favored target of one of its competitors.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 14:29 GMT martinusher
The ghost of Tirebiter?
Cars have been running over dogs since the beginning of road traffic. It might be carelessness on someone's part or just a pure accident but part of the problem is a tendency for small dogs like terriers to chase vehicles. I don't know why they do this because they normally don't catch them (and if they do, like the legendary Tirebiter, they invariably regret it).
Let's face it -- the only newsworthy part of this story is that the car was driven by a computer rather than a person. I don't know why corporations feel they have to replace a bit of low cost wetware with an expensive, finicky, piece of technology that only works in a limited area (especially as SF actually has a quite decent public transport system)(pickpockets aside...), It seems like a waste of resources. (Reg readers might find what Parallel Systems is doing in Fillmore a lot more useful -- they're testing a system of autonomous rail freight cars designed to make local freight service more cost effective.)
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 14:54 GMT Jason Bloomberg
Re: The ghost of Tirebiter?
I had a large dog jump out of a parked car side window which I stood no chance of avoiding. Thankfully it bounced off the car and the owners recognised there was little I could have done.
I also had a cat jump through some railings and bounce around under the car before racing into the distance.
Thankfully I have always managed to avoid the children who have stepped into my path.
I think the problem is, while we feel we know what we can expect when an animal or child jumps in front of a human driver, that doesn't translate to autonomous vehicles. Particularly as there's plenty of video evidence which ends in a full-speed collision when most drivers and others believe they would have at least reacted, tried to stop and minimise harm. "No worse than a drunk driver" isn't good enough, and nor should it be.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 18:00 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: The ghost of Tirebiter?
Similar story here, a family pulled into a parking lot adjacent to the road and all 4 got out followed by a large dog, probably a german shepard, on a leash. Unfortunately for the kid holding the unlocked, retractable leash, the dog proceed to bolt directly across the road directly in front of my 1960's four-door sedan, after which it didn't do much at all. Looking back 35 years, I guess it was better that I flattened that dog instead of a child being dragged across the road in front of me with the same outcome.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 11:38 GMT werdsmith
Re: The ghost of Tirebiter?
I've managed to avoid dogs and cats thankfully. Pigeons and pheasants, unfortunately I've accounted for a few of those off the front of my car.
One dear had me off my motorcycle, thankfully it ran off looking none the worse.
I have a vivid childhood memory of a friend when we were about 10 left his front door open and his fully grown Great Dane loped out and ran down the road and across the main road at the end. There was a Datsun Cherry approaching and could do nothing but slam on the brakes. The Datsun didn't hit the dog, but the dog hit the car and put a big dent in the side. There isn't much a human driver or a Waymo can do if a dog runs out in front of the wheels.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 16:33 GMT Bill Gray
Re: The ghost of Tirebiter?
"No worse than a drunk driver" isn't good enough, and nor should it be.
I suspect Waymo, at least, is actually doing no worse than an average driver. Before you rush to downvote, consider that "better than an average driver" is not really all that high a bar. There are some pretty awful drivers out there pulling the average down.
The problem is that about 90% of drivers (rough guess) are better than average, and at least 99% of drivers think they're better than average. Even if self-driving cars reach the point where they're statistically better than having meatbags drive, there will be at least one horrifying case now and then. And that unavoidable fact may be enough to torpedo widespread acceptance.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 15:03 GMT DoctorNine
That was my thought as well. As a city bicyclist on occasion, un-tethered canines are, in my opinion, a blight upon society. The vehicle probably should have a better surveillance program, but the fault here is in the owner of the pet. If you love your animals, please keep positive control of them. For all of our sakes.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 15:44 GMT Jou (Mxyzptlk)
Animals can't handle cars.
That is just the way it is. No matter which, they jump in front of it without thinking, worse than kids. And some deliberately jump in front of cars with lights at night...
(Exceptions are some birds which drop nuts in front of cars and jump away right on time, so the break the nuts open)
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 16:00 GMT Caver_Dave
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
The rural roads where I first started driving had a problem with Badgers, who dart from their place of hiding in the hedge at the last moment.
Took the the front wheel and suspension of my Mini off with a cub and the next week ran two wheels of an Escort van over a brock - it must have faced me and put its head down at the last moment as it threw me onto two wheels and there was no bodywork damage. As I reversed back up the road, it just stared as me for a bit and then ran off. They are the size, shape and sturdiness of a medium sized pig!
Deer are the main problem where I live now, but they are good and just stand on the verge watching you pass.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 22:42 GMT Anonymous Coward
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
Here we see convergent evolution**.
Moose have evolved long legs so they can come through the windscreen of pickups, while in Australia the unrelated Kangaroo has evolved jumping to achieve the same outcome.
** I recognise that a Creationist would posit that God hates pickups, but that seems a tad heretical.
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 23:03 GMT that one in the corner
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
> a Creationist would posit that God hates pickups, but that seems a tad heretical.
Well now, don't y'all know that Jesus drives a pickup truck?
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Tuesday 2nd December 2025 21:53 GMT DS999
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
Around here deer are the major hazard, and raccoons are the minor hazard. Hitting a deer at highway speeds will total a modern car even while it leaves belted occupants unhurt, as it costs more than the ACV of the car to replace all the fancy cameras and sensors along with the bodywork and mechanical bits that have always been damaged in such collisions. Raccoons just make a mess.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 08:14 GMT DS999
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
Unless you hit it jumping and it goes through the windshield, or you crash into something or run off the road trying to avoid it or panicking after the collision, I don't see how anyone can be injured in a collision with a deer especially the driver who has not only a seat belt but an air bag (unless you're injured by the air bag but that's another story)
My uncle hit has not only hit more deer than he can count but also four cows (he used to have a 60 mile commute each way in rural Kansas) and despite being in cars that predated airbags he never had more than a few bruises. He went through a lot of cars though lol
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 07:23 GMT The Organ Grinder's Monkey
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
One evening in 1985 I was driving along the edge of Cannock Chase & a large deer stuck it's head out of the hedge about 20 yards ahead of me. I had just enough time to see it & note that it had stopped when it leapt from the hedge & cleared my windscreen by inches. Scared me to death, but is at least part of the reason why I've only bought Saab or Volvo ever since. (They specifically design & test for Moose type animal impacts with the windscreen as its such a common problem in Scandinavia.)
Also, once had an owl swoop across in front of me when out on a bicycle in the wee small hours (on the Sandwich road near Canterbury, for those that like detail.) It was close enough that I could have reached out & touched it, reaction times permitting. Memorable & magical.
Went to do an oil change on that same transit one spring, & found the decomposing remains of a rabbit that I'd thought had got away when it ran out in front of me about 4 months previously. I say decomposing, but all the salt-spray from the winter roads had done a good job of suspending it's decomposition at the halfway stage, nice...
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 15:35 GMT Sherrie Ludwig
Re: Animals can't handle cars.
In the rural Midwestern USA, wild turkeys are quite a threat. A big tom stopped my friend's one-ton pickup (she hauls horse trailers) when his skull went through the radiator. I was coming home after working second shift when I had a deer run into the drivers' side of my truck. That was a cracked windscreen, the wing mirror torn clean off and a bent rear bumper. I stopped, adjusted to the new adrenaline level, and then went back to look for the deer, it had run off. Tough critters.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 09:30 GMT DrXym
Legal & criminal liability
The boards of these companies should be legally and criminally liable for accidents their product causes. i.e. if they run a red light and hit a pedestrian then they're on the hook for the bills and potential charges for failing to stop.
Perhaps the law cannot be applied the same way as when a person causes an accident or breaks the law, but there has to be something. There has to be serious risk to the company in terms of fines and personal risk to the board for criminal negligence. There has to be a real possibility that the board of Waymo / Tesla (including Musk) ending up doing time if their product kills a family through negligence or oversight.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 12:20 GMT IGotOut
Come to the countryside
I've given up replacing / repairing my bumper.
Two muntjacs , pigeons (they really have a death wish), pheasants, rabbits and countless rodents.
Near misses are a weekly occurrence, because I work nights, cats are a real issue.
The worst time is spring when they are the equivalent of teenage boys in a Wetherspoons, no common sense, just desperate to get laid.
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Wednesday 3rd December 2025 19:31 GMT Gene Cash
Not the only automated thing to kill dogs around here
About 3 years ago, my area transitioned from 4 blokes in the back of a trash truck to an automated lifter picking up standardized bins.
So the first week, it picked up a bin and a little yapyap dog ran out to where the bin had been, barking at the truck. Then BLAM, it set the bin back down and no more yapyap dog.
The operator didn't have much control. He clipped on the bin and pressed a button to start the cycle. No emergency stop, but I would assume that's been added.
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Biting the hand that feeds IT
