You’re absolutely right, it’s still 100% the responsibility of the driver, FSD or not. I’m no fan of FSD, in part because of situations like this.

But your hatred of cars is clouding your judgment here. Calling all cars “weapons” has some merit where cars and pedestrians/cyclists have to co-exist, but on freeways such as this where pedestrians are legally prohibited it falls a little hollow. That someone was crossing 12+ lanes of protected freeway (meaning is separated by fences or walls) at 2:35am is very very unexpected, making it more of an outlier than indicative of anything. It also points to mental health or some other impairment of this 71 year old person, which like you said could’ve been a deer or something.

Like it or not (I’m guessing you do not, and I don’t blame you) this happened in a car-centric area; I only bring that up because I think it’s reasonable to not expect pedestrians where they are legally prohibited. Of course, that does NOT resolve the driver of any responsibly, but it does explain it a bit.

Cars will never not exist. They should exist less and not interfere with other human friendly modes of transportation. That is a reasonable goal.

That goal requires specific places cars go, and for other people’s safety, people on foot do not.

A highway where (in my state) it is illegal to be walking, is not where the people go.

Thats a bad decision on the person walking and a bad decision by the driver, but fundamentally if you assign cars go quickly from point A to B on highways designed for cars… don’t walk there.

Deer are regularly killed by drivers, we call it roadkill.

Is it really legal to cross an interstate on foot? You're not even allowed to drive slow vehicles on big highways in some countries, let alone walk on them. It's dangerous, that's why there are usually barriers to discourage you from doing so.

This is very different from an accident on roads meant to be shared between cars and pedestrians and cyclists

Do we know if the person ran onto the road or if the driver actually had time to react?

We have to both acknowledge that this isn’t the smoking gun against FSD, but that FSD could (and does) lead to inattention and that could’ve played a part.

No question.

I’m just saying there’s a lot of reasons to hate Musk/Tesla/FSD (and I do), but this particular incident isn’t at the top of my list.

I'm glad you brought up the driving tests. Maybe you should reread it.

Vehicle Code § 21954 (a) Every pedestrian upon a roadway at any point other than within a marked crosswalk or within an unmarked crosswalk at an intersection shall yield the right-of-way to all vehicles upon the roadway so near as to constitute an immediate hazard.

Of course, importantly subsection (b) goes on to say:

The provisions of this section shall not relieve the driver of a vehicle from the duty to exercise due care for the safety of any pedestrian upon a roadway.

So we're in full agreement the driver (or vehicle operator, in this case) is 100% responsible for avoiding the pedestrian. But I wouldn't say the pedestrian "had the [legal] right of way." Certainly not on the freeway.

To wit,

Vehicle Code § 21960 (a) … prohibit or restrict the use of the freeways, expressways, or any portion thereof by pedestrians …