Especially when some of the object recognition is just looking for things in the way, not necessarily people.
They were testing pedestrian detection systems. I would guess that means these systems look for people.
No, it is not some simple explanation based on people’s eyes from the driver’s seat while driving in the dark.
It may not be the only problem, but it is a contributing factor.
The study examined eight AI-powered pedestrian detection systems used for autonomous driving research. Researchers ran more than 8,000 images through the software and found that the self-driving car systems were nearly 20% better at detecting adult pedestrians than kids, and more than 7.5% better at detecting light-skinned pedestrians over dark-skinned ones. The AI were even worse at spotting dark-skinned people in low light and low settings, making the tech even less safe at night.