> 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.