The idea behind what I wrote (which I realize now was unpopular) was that a somewhat overzealous safety system shouldn't be a big deal compared to the possibility of it preventing thousands of dead kids a year, if deployed at scale. Asking such a system to distinguish pretend behavior seems like a big ask.

it also protects you in the car, if not from physical damage which at speed is likely when hitting a heavy object like a human, from mental trauma of killing a person...

Truth be told I personally think infrastructure and cultural norms that take automobiles as the default preferred road use are the real cause, but at the point of impact the car, operated by a driver (or machine) is the cause.