The dying of a neighborhood bodega cat named Equipment Kat has shaken San Francisco’s Mission District, in line with The New York Occasions.
After Equipment Kat was run over by a Waymo robotaxi on the night of October 27, locals created a shrine to memorialize him. The realm has additionally been embellished with competing indicators, some criticizing Waymo, others noting the numerous deaths brought on by human drivers.
Jackie Fielder, who represents the Mission District on SF’s Board of Supervisors, introduced up Equipment Kat whereas making the case for a proposed metropolis decision that calls on the state to permit native voters to determine whether or not driverless vehicles can function of their neighborhoods.
“A human driver will be held accountable, can hop out, ask for forgiveness, will be tracked down by police if it’s a hit-and-run,” Fielder informed the Occasions. “Right here, there is no such thing as a one to carry accountable.”
Waymo, whose co-CEO lately spoke at Disrupt concerning the significance of security, described the incident as one the place a cat “darted beneath our car because it was pulling away.” The corporate mentioned it sends “our deepest sympathies to the cat’s proprietor and the neighborhood who knew and beloved him.”
