All organisms interact with its environment collecting data and acting according, so they are all sentient. But there is more: Modern machines are also sentient.

Cars are aware of its own self. Know for example its own inner temperature. They know if they are too hot and warn us about it. Know if they are stopped or moving, and how fast. Know in real time the position of many of its parts and take delicate complex actions with this info.

Cars are also aware of the environment. Don't have eyes, but know if is dark or sunny. Don't have ears, but can echolocate. Don't have touch, but register the pressure of the air at real time, or react to our fingers on a screen.

They are as sentient as animals are.

If this proves something is that "sentience" was not used before, because is a term totally useless.

Should we jail somebody if it crashes a car "killing" it?

What if he/she scratches a key against a door, torturing the poor paint layer and creating a permanent scar?

The Wikipedia article on it (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sentience) summarizes the situation well; philosophers use it consistently, but it seems that science-fiction writers got confused and hence the confusion in layperson usage.

> In modern Western philosophy, sentience is the ability to experience sensations. In different Asian religions, the word "sentience" has been used to translate a variety of concepts. In science fiction, the word "sentience" is sometimes used interchangeably with "sapience", "self-awareness", or "consciousness".

The term was weaponized to confuse deliberately.