>But I don't think that's what they're talking about. A human can feel bad, genuinely apologize, etc.

For this particular case, I don't see this as anything other than performative. Yes, it might make people feel better because someone is sorry, but it's not going to change anything. No taxi driver is going to look under their car after picking up a passenger, on the off chance there's a cat under.

>And by extension, if they cause more serious harm, they are personally liable and might see the inside of a jail cell. A corporation has no feelings and no one is ever going to prison even if a Waymo car runs over a child.

All of this assumes that Waymo is actually at fault, which isn't the case for this accident. It's certainly something worth considering, but using this accident as a rallying cry is massively disingenuous. It's like having a rape happen and then going on a rant about immigrants being rapists, but when it turned out the suspect wasn't actually an immigrant, falling back to "well the potential of immigrants to be rapists is still a serious problem!".

> how long before the first ex-spouse of a Waymo engineer gets "accidentally" ran over by an autonomous car?

This is even more unhinged, and goes from supposing that Waymo might negligent to straight up murder (ie. intentional killing).