In the autonomous debate, this is a strawman argument. It really is a stupid topic but one that is often pointed at. Mind you, I am not casting this upon your post since you are simply reporting it.

If you asked 100,000 people what they did in that situation when they were driving, almost none would have ever faced. People like to point to the absurd. There is no basis to proclaim that human drivers would chose people or animals over property when in that situation.

Stuff like this distracts from the real challenges with autonomous cars and the acceptance of them.