Also, wasn't this caused simply by the driver stepping on the accelerator?
That appears to be the case. The reporting on this is very muddled, but at least one article says that the car was not in "self-parking" mode, so the pedestrian detection would not have been active even if this car had it. The driver was in full control of the car, and intentionally accelerated toward the reporters. So the real story here is that some random guy in the Dominican Republic is an idiot.
The driver was under the impression that the car had Automatic Emergency Braking (AEB), which is a feature Volvo offers on the XC60 but isn't installed by default. Vovlo's advertising doesn't reflect this obviously, it's hidden in the small print that says something like "optional extras not included". The "self parking" part is a misnomer on the part of the submitter.
However the bigger problem is the mistaken faith they have in AEB systems, that they are 1) infallible, 2) effective. If you watch a video of the XC60's AEB system (Euro NCAP will have a few) they are only effective up to a speed of about 20 KPH, after that all they do is reduce the speed of the impact. Also these tests are done from a steady speed (I.E. not accelerating). I'm sure that mashing the go pedal wont help AEB work.
I firmly believe that AEB is going to make things worse, not better as it gives bad drivers false confidence. People who already dont pay attention to the road will think it's perfectly OK to pay even less attention to the road. We're making already lazy drivers even lazier. AEB will eventually be removed because of this, Volvo is lucky in this case because 1) it was in the Dominican Republic so they can simply buy their way out of trouble and; 2) the feature was not installed on the car. However shortly a dopey Doris in an AEB equipped car will be doing 100 down the motorway and plough into the back someone else's car at 75 because they were busy texting and their excuse will be "but the car was supposed to brake for me". Even though car manufacturers have tried to cover their arse in the fine print, it wont be enough to save them from the ignorance and stupidity of end users.