Self-Driving Cars Will Make the World Safer for Cats—and Humans Too

San Francisco is an admittedly quirky city, but an emotional debate there over the tragic death of a cat is strangely emblematic about the way too many Americans react to current events. Something bad happens and then throngs of people mourn, get angry, and then demand that the government “do something”—even if the something they call for will only make the problem worse.

For those who missed the internationally publicized brouhaha, a tabby named Kit Kat had lived in the city’s Mission, where he sauntered into bodegas and bars. Dubbed the Mayor of 16th Street, Kit Kat was by all accounts a charming character. Then on October 27, the unthinkable happened: a Waymo self-driving taxi ran him over. Kit Kat’s fans have erected memorials and taken to social media to mourn.

There’s nothing wrong with mourning the death of a neighborhood cat. You’ll have trouble finding someone who likes cats more than I do. I’ve got housecats, but also keep a food dish out front to lure neighborhood strays. One of my wife’s favorite memories from Istanbul: Friendly cats that wander around restaurants and stores. The city even erected a statue memorializing one.

So my problem isn’t with the upset, but with the proposed solutions. As The New York Times reported, “Jackie Fielder, a progressive San Francisco supervisor who represents the Mission District, has been among the most vocal critics. She introduced a city resolution after Kit Kat’s death that calls for the state Legislature to let voters decide if driverless cars can operate where they live.”

She argued that human drivers can be held accountable, but not robot drivers. I seriously doubt that drivers are ever held “accountable” for accidentally running over an animal. And, actually, a new California law does hold driverless car companies accountable for traffic incidents.

Such arguments are anathema to public safety. I found research (thank you, AI robots) that cars kill or injure 5.4 million cats a year in the United States, with 5,399,999 coming at the hands of human drivers. I found estimates of hundreds of cats killed by drivers each year in San Francisco. I’d guess that buses and trains—some of Waymo critics’ preferred transportation option—have probably squashed their share of critters.

Then there are those 43,000 humans who die in collisions in the United States each year, many of which could be saved if driverless cars were more prevalent. One reason for the company’s rapid growth is robotaxis’ stellar safety record. Per the Times: “[H]uman drivers killed 43 people in San Francisco last year, including 24 pedestrians, 16 people in cars and three bicyclists. None were killed by Waymos.” Many women and schoolchildren rely on them because of safety concerns, as a Google search of “taxi drivers and sexual abuse” will reveal.

Many robotaxi critics have ulterior motives that are unrelated to safety: Unions that fear job losses, the taxi industry, progressives who freak out at every technological development, transit activists, and people who have watched “Terminator” too many times.

A study by Swiss Re, an insurance company with the obvious financial incentive to understand the relative benefits and risks, found the following, per Reinsurance News: “The Waymo Driver exhibited significantly better safety performance, with an 88% reduction in property damage claims and a 92% reduction in bodily injury claims compared to human-driven vehicles.”

Waymo’s data find 11 times fewer serious-injury crashes. Most crashes involving a Waymo were due to other vehicles hitting their taxis. That makes perfect sense given their Artificial Intelligence (AI) software is continuously learning, whereas as it’s increasingly difficult to teach some human drivers not to get behind the wheel after downing some martinis.

In January, one person and a dog died in a horrible wreck in San Francisco involving a Waymo. But that’s the first fatal collision involving a driverless car—and was caused by a human driver who plowed into a line of stopped cars. Tesla has received criticism for wrecks related to its self-driving mode, but those systems require active driver supervision.

If you are creeped out about a robot driver, then you need to read CalMatters‘ recent investigative report finding: “The California DMV routinely allows dangerous drivers with horrifying histories to continue to operate on our roadways. Too often they go on to kill. Many keep driving even after they kill. Some go on to kill again.” A cat’s death is sad, but this is devastating.

The state legislature fortunately failed to pass a bill that would have done what Fielder suggests: Give local officials, rather than the state, the power to regulate robotaxis. That would have been a disaster, as every locality would impose its own rules, with some effectively banning them. It would stifle the industry and lead to more deaths of humans…and cats.

When something bad happens, sometimes the best approach is doing nothing.