KitKat (cat)

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The community-built altar for Kit Kat, a cat run over by Waymo. Photo take on November 1st, 2025, the day before the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration. Ofrenda for Kit Kat in San Francisco.jpg
The community-built altar for Kit Kat, a cat run over by Waymo. Photo take on November 1st, 2025, the day before the annual Dia de los Muertos celebration.

KitKat was a bodega cat from the Mission District of San Francisco who was killed by a Waymo car on October 27, 2025.

Contents

Life

Mike Zeidan, the owner of Randa's Market, adopted KitKat as a stray to help keep rodents out of his store. [1] [2] KitKat lived in Randa's Market for six years [3] and was well-loved by the neighborhood, [4] [5] including an appearance on a shop cats map that went viral in 2022 as a "particularly friendly cat" [6] [7] After KitKat arrived at the bodega, customers were said to come more often, and regularly brought the cat food and gifts. [8] [2]

Death

At around 11:40 pm on October 27, 2025, witnesses saw KitKat sitting in front of a stopped Waymo car for seven seconds. He walked under the car as the car pulled out, and the right rear tire ran over the back half of his body. [9] [10] [8] A bartender who was taking a cigarette break used a sandwich board sign as a stretcher took KitKat to an emergency animal clinic. An hour later, KitKat was pronounced dead. [8] [11] Waymo confirmed that the cat was killed by one of its vehicles on October 30. [12]

As of October 15,2025, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration had logged 14 collisions between Waymo cars and animals, of which 5 were confirmed fatalities. [13]

Aftermath

After KitKat's death, an altar was created outside Randa's Market. [1] [2] People left flowers, candles, cat food, written notes, and Kit Kat candy bars in the cat's honor. [9] [14] [15] A city worker took down the memorial for fire safety reasons, but neighbors built it again. [5]

Local supervisor Jackie Fielder held a rally called "Justice for KitKat" in support of a non-binding San Francisco resolution to shift decision-making about the operation of self-driving cars from the state to individual counties. [8] [16] [17] [18] [5] [19] Critics say that the resolution is performative because it is non-binding, [17] that local control would make autonomous vehicle operation impractical, [19] and that Waymo is still far less dangerous to animals than human drivers. [8] [20] Elon Musk commented that "many pets will be saved by autonomy". [21] [22]

There are multiple meme coins inspired by KitKat. [8]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 Kelly, George (October 31, 2025). "Waymo allegedly kills cat at San Francisco store". The San Francisco Standard.
  2. 1 2 3 Karoff, Timothy (October 30, 2025). "SF neighborhood mourns loss of bodega cat allegedly killed by Waymo". SFGate.
  3. ↑ Swan, Rachel (November 5, 2025). "How a cat named KitKat became San Francisco's latest symbol of anti-tech rage". San Francisco Chronicle.
  4. ↑ Li, Katherine. "San Francisco's Mission District is mourning an iconic bodega cat after it was run over by a Waymo". Business Insider. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  5. 1 2 3 Orellana Hernandez, Angie (November 6, 2025). "Death of KitKat, a beloved San Francisco cat, reignites fury over robotaxis". The Washington Post.
  6. ↑ Bartlett, Amanda (December 10, 2020). "Meet the corner store cats of San Francisco". SFGate.
  7. ↑ Vainshtein, Annie (October 20, 2022). "Do you know these felines? Map featuring the 'store cats' of San Francisco goes viral". San Francisco Chronicle.
  8. 1 2 3 4 5 6 Knight, Heather (November 15, 2025). "Waymo Was Thriving in San Francisco. Then One of Its Driverless Cars Killed a Cat". The New York Times.
  9. 1 2 Palma, Oscar (October 31, 2025). "Waymo confirms its car killed KitKat, the Mission bodega cat. Mission Local". Mission Local.
  10. ↑ Palma, Oscar; Eskenazi, Joe (November 4, 2025). "KitKat killing drives experts to say Waymo must come clean". Mission Local.
  11. ↑ Palma, Oscar (October 29, 2025). "KitKat, liquor store mascot and '16th St. Ambassador,' killed—Allegedly by Waymo". Mission Local.
  12. ↑ Palma, Oscar (October 31, 2025). "Waymo confirms its car killed KitKat, the Mission bodega cat". Mission Local.
  13. ↑ "Standing General Order on Crash Reporting". NHTSA. Retrieved November 18, 2025.
  14. ↑ "Beloved store cat in San Francisco's Mission District killed by Waymo". CBS News. October 29, 2025. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  15. ↑ Gibson, Mary Jane (November 5, 2025). "A Robotaxi Killed a Beloved Bodega Cat in San Francisco. People Are Pissed". Rolling Stone.
  16. ↑ "San Francisco supervisor to hold rally for cat killed by Waymo". KTVU. November 3, 2025.
  17. 1 2 Lashinsky, Adam (November 4, 2025). "Never let a dead cat go to waste". The San Francisco Standard.
  18. ↑ Ha, Anthony (November 16, 2025). "Beloved SF cat's death fuels Waymo criticism". TechCrunch.
  19. 1 2 Lopez, Nadia (November 5, 2025). "Beloved Mission cat's death sparks call for local robotaxi oversight". Axios.
  20. ↑ "Letters: Supervisor's response to Waymo killing a cat is so typical of S.F. politics". San Francisco Chronicle. November 5, 2025.
  21. ↑ McFall, Marni Rose. "Elon Musk reacts to San Francisco cat being killed by Waymo driverless car". Newsweek. Retrieved November 16, 2025.
  22. ↑ Vaziri, Aidin (November 2, 2025). "San Francisco mourns cat killed by Waymo self-driving car". San Francisco Chronicle.
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