Outrage After Waymo Self-Driving Vehicle Kills San Francisco Bodega Cat KitKat – Known As The ‘16th Street Ambassador’
By Erin Whitten
Mission District residents are mourning the death of a bodega cat killed last Monday night by a Waymo autonomous vehicle outside Randa’s Market, the liquor store where the feline had made her home for six years. Locals affectionately knew the cat as the “16th Street ambassador,” as it was a familiar fixture to the Mission’s residents, bartenders, and other late-night regulars. The cat, who the neighborhood named KitKat, was killed in front of the corner store around 11:40 p.m. on Monday. Her death has now sparked outrage and disbelief in the community, which comes at a time of increased public scrutiny of driverless car safety on San Francisco streets.
Two witnesses interviewed by Mission Local who had been leaving the nearby bar Dalva at the time said they had seen the cat sitting for “a few seconds” in front of the autonomous vehicle before she suddenly darted underneath it. As the Waymo vehicle started to pull away, its right rear tire struck the back end of her body. The witnesses said KitKat then crawled about 10 feet to the sidewalk, where she collapsed. The bar-goers offered to help the cat, who soon began vomiting blood, but she died moments later.
Waymo did not address the incident until three days later in a statement Thursday night. “Our vehicle was stopped to pick up passengers at the time of this incident,” the company said. “As the vehicle was pulling away, a nearby cat darted under our vehicle.” The company expressed condolences to the community and to the cat’s owner, Mike Zeidan. Waymo also said it would make a donation to a local animal rights organization in honor of the cat, though it did not disclose how much or which group. The company declined to provide video footage from the car of the moments before, during, and after the incident.
Witnesses dispute Waymo’s account, insisting that the cat was visible in front of the vehicle for a number of seconds before it darted underneath. Another bystander who watched the incident, Jeff Klein, was driving east on 16th Street at the time. He said the Waymo made a sudden “whip maneuver” to pull away from the curb and into traffic, at a speed he would not expect a self-driving vehicle to be going on such a busy street. Moments later, he and his friend heard shouting and realized something had been hit.
By Thursday afternoon, a makeshift memorial for KitKat had been growing outside Randa’s Market. Flowers, candles, small bottles of Fernet Branca, cat food cans, and handwritten notes from neighbors lined the sidewalk. One read “rest in power,” while another was scrawled in thick black letters: “We love KitKat. Fuck Waymo.” Residents described the cat as calm and friendly, a fixture of the neighborhood and a small source of comfort and constancy for the Mission’s rapidly shifting blocks. Some have argued that companies like Waymo have scaled up too quickly without proper oversight and are unprepared to recognize or react to smaller living beings like pets on the road. Others, like Supervisor Jackie Fielder, have said the incident shows city leaders need stronger local authority over autonomous vehicle operations in San Francisco. In a neighborhood known for its cats and local iconoclasm, many are still focusing on the loss of a friend.
