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KitKat, a familiar cat at Randa’s Market in San Francisco’s Mission District, died after a Waymo struck him on October 27, 2025. His death prompted neighborhood mourning and renewed calls for greater local authority over robotaxis—but it did not settle the broader arguments about autonomous-vehicle safety, traffic, or regulation.
What happened to KitKat?
KitKat was a 9-year-old tabby known around the neighborhood as the “Mayor of 16th Street.” He lived at or was closely associated with Randa’s Market, beside the Roxie Theater. Reports said a Waymo struck him late on October 27, 2025, on 16th Street in the Mission District.
The San Francisco Chronicle and The Washington Post reported that the vehicle continued after the collision. The San Francisco Standard reported that KitKat was found under the vehicle, taken to an animal hospital, and pronounced dead. The Chronicle’s account, The Washington Post’s report, and The Standard’s coverage agree on the death but do not resolve every detail of the vehicle’s movement.
Waymo’s account and witness descriptions
Waymo acknowledged the incident and expressed condolences. A spokesperson told The Standard: “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.” The company also said it made a donation to a local animal-rights organization in KitKat’s honor; the reports did not identify the amount or recipient.
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Witness accounts and complaints described the vehicle as not appearing to slow or stop after the collision. Those accounts differ from the company’s description of how the incident began. The available reporting does not establish what the vehicle detected or independently settle the sequence.
Why did the death become a flashpoint?
KitKat was a recognizable neighborhood fixture, and residents and nearby businesses mourned him. People made a memorial of flowers, candles, photographs, and notes. At a November 4 rally, grief over the cat’s death converged with existing objections to robotaxis, including concerns about safety, jobs, competition with public transit, congestion, and data collection. Some attendees advocated bans or stronger limits; apparent counterprotesters argued that human drivers were worse. These were positions voiced at the event, not conclusions proved by KitKat’s death. The Chronicle reported on the rally, while KQED covered the local policy response.
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Randa’s Market owner Mike Zeidan told KQED: “I’m not a politician. I just hope they can make these cars safer for animals and for humans.” Supervisor Jackie Fielder criticized what she characterized as companies treating communities as laboratories and people and animals as data points; that was her criticism, not an independently verified description of company practice.
What robotaxi policy change was proposed?
Fielder planned to introduce a resolution urging California lawmakers to let counties make decisions about autonomous vehicles. The reports describe a proposal, not an enacted rule. KQED reported that California’s existing framework requires state permits from the Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission, rather than city or county approval to operate.
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The idea revisited a question raised by SB 915, a local-control bill that was pulled in 2024. Statewide rules can provide consistency for a service that crosses municipal boundaries; county-level authority could give local communities more power to limit or ban operations. Critics cited by the Chronicle and KQED warned that separate local rules could create a patchwork and complicate regional service. The reporting does not establish the proposal’s legislative status after those articles.
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County-level decisions could make it easier for local officials to respond to community priorities, but differing rules could make trips across county lines harder to provide. State-level permitting offers a more consistent framework, while leaving communities with less direct authority over whether and how robotaxis operate locally. The core dispute is therefore not simply whether robotaxis should be safer: it is also who should set operating rules and how to balance local decisions with a connected regional service.
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What do the reported safety and traffic figures show?
The Washington Post reported that California’s Department of Motor Vehicles had received 888 autonomous-vehicle collision reports since 2014, and that 65 of 112 reports that year involved Waymo vehicles. These are reports, not findings that each company was at fault; without fleet exposure or mileage data, the figures also do not establish comparative collision rates. They are the totals reported in 2025, not current counts. The Washington Post’s report provides the figures and their context.
On congestion, KQED cited a 2018 San Francisco County Transportation Authority finding that transportation network companies, including Uber and Lyft, accounted for nearly 50% of the increase in San Francisco traffic congestion between 2010 and 2016. That historical finding concerns those ride-hailing companies, not Waymo specifically, and it predates KitKat’s death. It cannot by itself establish robotaxis’ effect on congestion. KQED’s report discusses the figure in the policy debate.
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