A self-driving car hit and killed a mother duck in Texas, sparking outrage from neighborhood residents

The death of a duck in the Mueller Lake area of ​​Austin, Texas, has neighbors concerned about self-driving vehicles and whether they belong there.

While humans are responsible for killing animals with their cars all the time, this incident has brought negative attention to the new technology. The duck incident was picked up by local media after a resident posted in a Facebook group in the Mueller neighborhood that an autonomous Avride vehicle (with a human safety worker behind the wheel) had run over and killed a duck, and then did not stop. “He did not slow down or hesitate at all, but moved forward,” the post reported by KXAN read.

Residents’ knowledge of this particular duck, which was nesting in a bowl outside a local Italian restaurant, has fueled anger and distrust of self-driving vehicle technology. For those concerned about the future of duck eggs, locals are placing them in an incubator, Axios Austin reports.

An Avride spokesperson confirmed to TechCrunch that the car was in self-driving mode at the time. Avride hasn’t paused testing on public roads entirely. However, the company has adjusted its area of ​​operations by excluding certain streets around the lake in the neighborhood where the duck incident occurred, according to company spokeswoman Yuliya Sheviko.

The citizen also claimed in his post that the car failed to stop at the stop sign. Avride told TechCrunch it found no evidence to support this claim. The vehicle came to a complete and appropriate stop at all relevant stop signs.

Shevko said the team reviewed the car’s data and behavior, including replaying the scene several times in the simulation. Avride is now evaluating potential improvements to the technology to help avoid similar situations in the future, she said. It is worth noting that this involves conducting a series of controlled simulation experiments to ensure that any changes do not negatively impact the vehicle’s safety performance in other scenarios.

Avride isn’t the only company testing or commercially deploying autonomous vehicles in the city. Zoox was tested in the city. Tesla and Waymo, in partnership with Uber, operate a commercial taxi service in parts of Austin.