I find it kind of scary how hard it is to see pedestrians who are off to the side when I'm driving down dark roads, especially if they're wearing dark clothing. I would not know if someone was standing at the side of the road if my headlights didn't play upon them, and if they suddenly moved out into the road (why the **** did she move out into the road in front of the car?) I would not have noticed before she got in front of me and the headlights picked her out.
I agree, not only pedestrians but cyclists with no lights or reflectors. Most cyclists try to light themselves up with LED's and reflective clothing but there are still a lot of idiots out there.
One thing autonomous vehicles will be able to do in future is communicate with each other to avoid contact. That won't solve the pedestrian, cyclist problem though
If you are doing 50 kph, see an object in front of you and it takes 1 second to react, you will travel 14 meters before your foot hits the brake pedal.