This is a most excellent place for technology news and articles.
People who let their cats roam outside are assholes. As well as being vulnerable to getting run over by cars, cats also kill large numbers of birds and small animals.
TLDR: cat gets hit by AI car and dies
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:
What I've learned working at a startup in stealth mode and having larger projects in the back lot behind the building, is that those cars also do not respect 'no trespassing' signs and waymo will wait until it gets to the litigious point to bother to fix their routing.
when the LA riots happened a few months ago and they were torching waymo cars i was confused why they would do that, now im ok with thoese cars being torched. fuck waymo, RIP kitkat
Waymo/Google has aligned itself with Trump and there are a lot of cameras on those cars. I suspect that was a reason back then. Now there's more.
I had a cat who went outside every day, never once got hit by a human driver until it happened.
My neighbor has had three cats killed by cars, they even ran over their own cat in the driveway.
I had a cat that was killed three times by cars. When it died, it only had six lives left... or maybe I should say five.
reader beware.
lots of muskrats and thielologists shitting in this post.
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.
Yes, this is the extra cherry on top that makes San Francisco look like a parody of itself here lol
Or even better: Be the "good guy" by giving your cat a happy, healthy, secure, and longer life by keeping them indoors. People hate to be told what to do, and some cats love it outside, but guess what? My dog would love to eat 10lbs of chocolate. We have to look out for their best interests. This obviously doesn't mean don't ever take them outside leashed or supervised, but the fact remains: indoor cats have a better, less stressful life, and don't decimate local bird populations...
I always ask people how they would think about my Dog coming into their garden unsupervised, shitting and pissing all over the place, digging out flowers and fighting with other Dogs. I'm sure they would be less than thrilled and yet the same is okay for cats.
Not to mention the literally billions of birds that are killed every year by cats in the US.
Yet another reason to despise AI. Animals deserve to be safe too. We've already taken so much from them as it is.
Ai has a proven track record of causing less accidents, and killing far fewer animals per km traveled than the average driver.
92% fewer accidents involving animals than the average human.
Ai doesn't drink, get distracted, or smoke meth like the ml mods.
Public transportation does this too and isn't controlled by some company trying to make graphs go up
Don't worry. A lot of places are also trying to privatize their public transportation.
link from the article https://www.latimes.com/california/story/2024-05-16/woman-gets-millions-after-getting-dragged-by-self-driving-taxi-in-san-francisco
People get jail time, what do we do with machines?
People get jail time, what do we do with machines?
Hold the manufacturers and operators (specifically for company operated) accountable?
The machine is the product, not the operator. We don't jail classic cars either. We hold their operators accountable. The one in control. Self driving has a shift of who is in control - now "indirectly".
as the comment chain below highlights, autonomous driving AI is completely different from LLMs. Computer vision and control theory have made big improvements because of machine learning, do you despise this too?
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.
Mmmm. You're taking "company spokesperson" at face value there.
Let's be real though, a meeting of highly paid, highly skilled people came up with that response then it was sanitised through three more filters before reaching our eyes.
“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.
People who keep their kids inside but let their pets play in traffic are psychopaths.
I know what I said.
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.
cats don't dart under moving vehicles. i reckon the statement is partially bullshit
cats, the animal most notorious for being contrary and doing dangerous things often enough that they were given the mythos of having "nine lives", never dart under quiet electric moving vehicles?
I've had several times a cat has run out in the road in front of my car, and would have gone under if I hadn't stopped quickly. Happily I've not hit one, few close calls though.
Cats darting under a car are almost daily occurence where I live. There are numerous situations and we humans adapt quiet well.
So glad I live far away from the tech bros. Must be so annoying living in the bay area.
Used to go to SF for work events.
It felt like a town that once had culture that still wants to peek out, but it almost entirely covered with silicon valley monotony and misanthropic policies. It feels like a city where the people living there are the after thought, and the tablet where you order your coffee while you sit around a room where nobody makes eye contact or speaks to you is the product.
I'm sure there's a part of the city where humanity still thrives, but it should be a cultural warning to those who are adopting silicon valley cures as anything other than snake oil.
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.
Human drivers have probably killed dozens of cats since this singular incident and not a peep. People are so fuckin stupid
