The hit-and-run death of a beloved Arab bodega cat in San Francisco's Mission District has drawn international headlines and galvanised outrage over driverless vehicles.
KitKat, a nine-year-old brown tabby cat, had been a fixture for six years at Randa's Market, a store run by immigrants from Jordan, until he was hit by a Waymo car. According to witnesses, the car didn't stop and continued on its way, even after passersby banged on the door for it to stop, leaving the cat to succumb to its wounds at the animal hospital.
"Everybody loved him; he loved everybody. He brought people together," Mike Zeidan, owner of Randa's Market, told The New Arab, recalling how KitKat quickly adapted to the area, greeting customers and sometimes visiting local bars. "We thought we could make a home for him at our store."
Since the incident, which occurred on 27 October, a memorial has been growing in honour of the cat (which was briefly removed out of safety concerns, but then quickly replaced by more flowers); condolences have been pouring in from around the world with #justiceforkitcat continuing to draw followers three weeks on; and the news has reignited debates over driverless cars in residential areas.
"Waymo thinks that they can just sweep this under the rug, and we will all forget. But here in the Mission, we will never forget our sweet KitKat. We will always put community before tech oligarchs, and California should do the same," said Jackie Fielder, a supervisor representing the district, in a video she posted shortly before holding a press conference about a week after the incident to introduce legislation that would require voter approval for driverless cars.
Autonomous vehicles have come under increasing scrutiny over the past several years. Aside from examples of imperfect sensors leading to accidents and traffic jams, many people are uncomfortable with data collection and the use of rare-earth minerals from the Global South.
Waymo, which is owned by Google’s parent company Alphabet, has become a target of anti-oligarch and anti-ICE (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) demonstrations, with some being torched during protests in Los Angeles, one of the three major cities where they operate.
"Kill a Waymo, save a cat," reads a note on KitKat's memorial.
Shortly after KitKat's death, Waymo issued a statement acknowledging that one of its cars had hit the cat. However, they stopped short of taking responsibility for the incident, saying that it was the cat that had darted in front of the car.
"We reviewed this, and while our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away," reads a statement by Waymo. "We send our deepest sympathies to the cat's owner and the community who knew and loved him, and we will be making a donation to a local animal rights organisation in his honour."
Tesla CEO Elon Musk weighed in on the incident on Twitter, saying that driverless cars were safer than traditional vehicles, posting that "many pets will be saved by autonomy."
For residents of the Mission, a historically Hispanic neighbourhood and a hub for community and immigrant advocacy—the street where KitKat was killed hosts near-daily anti-ICE or pro-Palestinian demonstrations, sometimes drawing tens of thousands for major gatherings—the loss of a beloved cat is the spark that is bringing together people who are already sceptical of robotaxis.
"It's a familiar face. It’s someone you interact with. Someone in the neighbourhood. He lived here for six years without any issue, until [now], after we added self-driving cars," Garret Warshaw, a regular at the next-door Roxie Theatre, told TNA, as he laid a bouquet on KitKat's growing memorial.
"The shuttles are fine, the buses are fine, the cars are fine with avoiding cats," he said. "But here we are in a situation where a car struggles to see small animals."