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.

Cat

“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.

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

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.

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.

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