Technology

Before anyone starts to think there's a good guy in this story:

some have taken upon themselves to honor KitKat in distinctly Silicon Valley-style ways. Zeidan (part of cats family) has released a memecoin honoring KitKat’s legacy, and also said that he was disappointed to see others launch their own imitation tokens in an attempt to profit off KitKat’s death.

He says he's going to use the money to support local vets, but why don't you just share some links to spca to donate directly, you're providing nothing but a way for you to grift by taking the money through meme coins.

“While our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away”

I mean, it sucks, but it could've happened with a human driver as well... and likely has happened.

I have rode in a Waymo and it shows you all the things it detects on a screen... which includes humans and small animals. It's not a perfect machine, but it probably is a better driver than a lot of people already and it's learning every day.

I suppose this incident could get Waymo to put cameras/sensors beneath the car... something that regular car makers won't think about.

But yeah, it should've detected the cat beforehand and waited for it to leave before driving off. Then again, the human passengers didn't see it either.

“While our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away,” a company spokesperson said.

I'm not super keen on robo-cars, because they're being rushed out by corporations that want to start raking in the money while using the public to beta test their platform. but let's be honest here, if the car was driven by a human, they almost certainly would have run over that cat too.

People who keep their kids inside but let their pets play in traffic are psychopaths.

I know what I said.

Yet another reason to despise AI. Animals deserve to be safe too. We've already taken so much from them as it is.

While our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away,

There are plenty of assholes who will aim for cats while driving. This, at least, can likely be remedied fleet-wide and permanently with a software fix. These people are just looking for an excuse to rail against automation— as if a human driver would have definitely seen the cat.

Also, keep cats inside.

Cat

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So glad I live far away from the tech bros. Must be so annoying living in the bay area.

Seen a lot of half baked arguments.

I've been in the area and met this cat. First off, this cat started as a stray, and found its way to the corner store that took it in and adopted it for all intents and purposes. Its lived in the same spot for many years, and had always been an exceptionally chill cat. Painting him as a typical outdoor cat is disingenuous and uninformed.

KitKat has been safe and sound for so long without any issues. There's gotta be literally millions of cars that have driven past in his residency on 16th in the Mission district of SF. And the only time he gets hit is by a waymo? All these human drivers, so many of them absolute shit, and never an occurrence? This cat isn't sprinting the neighborhood, crossing streets, or hunting for prey; its docile, loves pets, and knows there's endless food at the liquor store that provides all his needs. He wasn't your typical outdoor cat that runs from everyone and twitches at unknown sounds; this was an urban dwelling cat that's been prospering for years.

Waymo promotes and brags to riders how many cameras are inside and out of the car. But it so easily hit something that could fuck the car up if it wasn't soft squishy flesh. Were animals and small children not in any of its test scenarios? Is it infeasble to install cameras where a typical driver couldn't usually see?

Not to mention the absolutely rude response waymo has had to this event. Instead of apologizing and pledging improvements and retribution to killing a valued community member; they victim-blamed the dead cat, said they didn't do anything wrong, and said nothing of mitigating future scenarios.

There's more I can say about the company and its typical ownership, but I want to keep this to the slaughter at hand and their complete lack of consciousness. Waymo doesn't care about you or anything that it kills. Once again, its about the bottom line and whatever it can do to turn profit.

Obviously accidents happen, but its the reaction that can truly matter in those cases. They've shown that causing great harm in a community means nothing to them. And this is in obvious and outspoken situations. What about the less obvious ways? Whether that be job loss, economic factors, environmental concerns, or blatant safety on our streets. If they're forced, they'll make a bullshit apology (aka recognition of events) and then focus on moving forward without addressing people's grief and anger.

Fuck waymo, fuck their response especially, and fuck anyone saying this cat deserved it by being a lazy sidewalk-laying pillar of joy in the neighborhood.

Rest in Peace KitKat. The community will always love you and remember you for always brightening our days in this endlessly threatening world. The only thing that killed you was the ruthless drive for profit. Your memory will live on in the hearts of many. And as a focal point that citizens must stop allowing corporations from plowing down their neighbors, their voice, and their sunshine in a day's walk to the store.

3:

I'm against robotaxis but in this particular case the taxi was stopped and the cat darted under it as it started to move. A human driver would have likely hit it too.

I wish people were as outraged about people getting killed by human drivers. The safety record of these cars has been no less than stellar until now.

Human drivers have probably killed dozens of cats since this singular incident and not a peep. People are so fuckin stupid

Some of us are old enough to remember how cats and other creatures would get killed by old car engine designs with the large open fan driven by a belt. They would sleep on that fan housing and not realize the danger when the car was started. So there have been improvements that have helped, maybe not necessarily for that reason. For what it's worth, I'm on the side of minimizing cars for so many reasons, but it has been worse for animals in the past.

“But if there is serious injury, you are to take life for life, eye for eye, tooth for tooth, hand for hand, foot for foot.” – Exodus 21:23-24

Aged like milk

https://futurism.com/advanced-transport/waymo-ceo-car-death

Cat's shouldn't be left outside in the first place, because of situations like this.

*"Cat's shouldn't be left outside because they'll be crushed by a vehicle, eaten by coyotes, catch a deadly disease or purposely killed by shitty humans."

I can never understand why this is so often a hot take other than "it's natural", which is dubious at best. Leaving a cat outside by itself, without supervision and a harness is irresponsible and stupid. If you or your family do that, in a city, then make sure to have some "missing cat" posters pre-printed and always keep the picture up to date because that cat will likely not live a full life. Kindly keep any anecdotal evidence to the contrary to yourself, it stands for nothing.

Maybe if you lived on a farm and you wanted it to keep the mice population down, but then there's the environmental factor of how cats kill a lot of birds which stresses an already stressed population (and is maybe detrimental to crop health re. insects).

/rant

Let cats use them as litter boxes. Cats' revenge.

Regicide.

A feline queen reigns over my apartment complex. It's a fair regime.

There is probably an elevated risk of killing cats in any electric vehicle because there are fewer signs that the car is "on" and about to drive.

Unpopular opinion: cats are an invasive species in most places, like dogs, and shouldn’t be subject to different regulations than dogs.

Keep them on a leash if you care about them.

Is this a bellwether for how the car will handle a kid? Perhaps. Worth thinking about.

Highlighting individual cases like this is a good way to capture human emotions but the focus should be on the big picture. The moment a self driving car is statistically safer than a human driver it becomes the objectively better alternative. The fact that accidents will still keep happening nevertheless isn't a reason to revert back to human drivers.

This same "trick" is used in charity advertisements: starving kid will capture the attention of people but a starving village will not despite the fact that it contains that same kid.