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San Francisco, the United States: The sidewalk outside Majed Zeidan’s grocery store in San Francisco’s Mission District has stayed filled with flowers, candles, memorials and pictures since his cat was crushed under a Waymo in late October. A month later, a Waymo reportedly crushed a dog.

Amid the pictures of the cat, a visitor had placed a poster that said, “save the cat, kill the car”. That’s when Zeidan knew Kit Kat, his bodega cat, had become the face of the simmering discontent over San Francisco’s growing number of self-driving cars.

Two years since it got approved to ply its driverless cars, Waymo, owned by Google parent company Alphabet, has become a part of San Francisco’s landscape.

Residents became increasingly comfortable riding one, costumed Halloween parade goers clambered on its rooftops and danced, and pedestrians occasionally banged its bonnet to get it to give way to them.

In November, Waymo got approvals for its biggest expansions so far – to ply on the Bay Area’s freeways and pick up passengers from San Jose International Airport. Waymo also started, or is about to start, services in Dallas, Houston, Orlando, Miami and Washington, DC, in the last few weeks.

But the expansion comes with heightened safety concerns and new competition. Amazon’s Zoox driverless vehicle has begun running in the Mission, too. And Zeidan says the Kit Kat incident opened pent-up resentment over the melding of the new entrants into the city’s hilly, colourful streets.

Around Kit Kat’s memorials is a poster with a barcode to sign a petition, moved by Jackie Fielder, the area’s representative to the San Francisco Board of Supervisors, that autonomous vehicles should have oversight from city authorities and not just state authorities.

“Waymo is operating in something of a laissez-faire environment right now,” says California State Senator Dave Cortese, who chairs the state assembly’s transportation committee and whose district encompasses San Jose and other Silicon Valley cities where Waymo services recently began.

Currently, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) and Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) regulate the testing and approval process for autonomous vehicles.

“My sense is that Waymo’s ability to grow without legislation will not last too long. I just hope it doesn’t take a tragedy for it to happen,” says Cortese, who had also tabled a bill in the California State Assembly to bring autonomous vehicles under the ambit of local authorities, including firefighters and police.

Waymo’s website says its vehicles have been in 91 percent fewer accidents, and 92 percent less accidents involving pedestrian injuries than vehicles driven by people. Waymo did not respond to a request for comment for this story. Kit Kat, Waymo said in a statement at the time of the cat’s death, “darted under our vehicle as it was pulling away. We send our deepest sympathies to the cat’s owner and the community who knew and loved him.”

Steve Larson, a former executive director of the CPUC, says Waymo’s stellar safety record and successful rollout is at least partly because regulators “gave Waymo good advice and [the two organisations] took their time in getting things right”.

Karl Brauer, an automation writer and analyst with iSeeCars.com, says he was “sceptical” that before the end of the decade, self-driving cars would be as widespread as they are now. Better sensors and an improved ability to process information from videos have led to the success of Waymo, in particular, Brauer says.

But Waymo’s biggest expansion so far will be tested as more autonomous vehicles hit the road and Waymo itself drives further afield into uncharted territory.

‘No driver to scream at’

Zeidan had kept Kit Kat in his grocery store, Randa’s Market, for six years. “He recognised regular customers and followed them around,” Zeidan recalled. “They rubbed his tummy.” From his bed, Kit Kat kept an eye on the store’s entryway on busy 16th Street, with its independent movie theatre, bars and restaurants. He became known as “mayor of 16th Street”.

“I would rub his butt and his tail would go up,” recalled one regular customer, at Randa’s to buy beer on credit. “He would affectionately paw at us.”

On October 27, Zeidan got a call a little before midnight from a bartender at a neighbourhood bar saying Kit Kat had been in an accident. A Waymo had stopped outside his closed store and Kit Kat had crouched under it. A lady nearby spotted Kit Kat and called her to come out, but she didn’t. She tapped the car so it would not move.

“There was no driver to scream at,” Zeidan says. Soon, the car moved, crushing the cat underneath. On Thursday, Zeidan released security footage confirming how Kit Kat had died.

Scott Moura, professor and director of the Energy, Controls, & Applications Lab at the University of California, Berkeley, says the Kit Kat accident represents a challenge for autonomous vehicle software development.

“Perception, prediction and planning are the key aspects of this software, and the bodega cat incident is indicative of perception since the car could not make out the cat was there,” Moura says.

“The hardest part, though, might be predicting what to do when it does know.”

This may have been the case with the dog, since it was said to be unleashed and may have run onto the street, according to media reports, which said the dog had died.

Waymo said in a public statement, “Unfortunately, a Waymo vehicle made contact with a small, unleashed dog in the roadway. We are dedicated to learning from this situation and how we show up for our community as we continue improving road safety in the cities we serve.”

‘Driving is social’

Moura expects perception and prediction issues to come up more as more autonomous vehicles come onto city streets and freeways and more cities with different weather.

Brauer of iSeeCars.com says that while Waymo has been in San Francisco and expanded mostly to warmer cities such as Dallas and Miami, being in cities with snow could clog its sensors and make perception hard. “Weather will be a big factor for Waymo sensors and its expansion plans,” he says.

As for prediction, “driving is social”, Moura says, noting, “we want cars to anticipate and act accordingly”.

He has looked at what kinds of signals autonomous vehicles can give people, leading to better coordination between the two. This could include LED lights or voice announcements that the car is turning or dropping off passengers – signals that Moura found to be valuable.

This could lead self-driving cars to look and feel quite different from conventional cars. Some such unique features have been included in the Amazon-backed Zoox vehicle that is also running in a few San Francisco areas, including the Mission, since November. There is a waitlist of customers to try it. Zoox, which does not resemble a traditional car, does not have a steering wheel and can seamlessly move forward and backward.

Waymo is also adding custom-made vehicles from Zeekr, a Chinese carmaker, and Hyundai, along with its more than 1,500-car-strong fleet from Jaguar.

Cuts to public transport

But the entry of Zoox, along with the expansion of Waymo, has also raised concerns about the nature of San Francisco streets and the city itself.

“All the issues we’ve had will now be exacerbated,” says Claire Amable, director of advocacy at the San Francisco Bicycle Coalition, which pushes for the city to encourage sustainable transport.

In 2023, she wrote to the CPUC after an incident when she was leading a children’s cycling trip and a Waymo came up close to the children at the back of the group. The organisers had to bang on the roof of the car to stop it before it hit the children.

Even as self-driving cars become more common, public transport is underfunded and needs to be prioritised, Amable told Al Jazeera.

In August, for instance, city authorities allowed autonomous cars and ride-hailing services on Market Street, the city’s commercial hub, after three years of it being car free. At the same time, bus services have been reduced on the street due to budget cuts.

A  spokesperson for the city’s transit authority declined a request to comment for this story.

Amable and others have pushed for a phased rollout of self-driving cars. But easy availability of Robotaxis may in fact hurt an already underfunded public transit system as well as sustainable transportation such as cycling.

Joel Smith had always cycled to work at a well-known city grocery store. But when he sent his bike for repairs last month, Smith downloaded the Waymo app and took his first ride. “It was such a comfortable ride and the best thing is I could play whatever music I want, at the volume I want.” He plans to mix Waymo rides with biking now that his bike is back.

Brauer says the rapid development of artificial intelligence to quickly process not just language but video in real time has led to the faster-than-expected success of self-driving cars. It meant Waymo could see incoming traffic or people very well and drive accordingly without mishaps. Cruise autonomous vehicles from General Motors – cars that launched along with Waymo – had been in an accident with a pedestrian in 2023 , and have since discontinued service. But Waymo’s safety record allowed it to expand, and it has done so in a measured way.

“They may be safer, but that doesn’t mean the government should not do its job,” says Senator Cortese, who is considering bringing back a version of a previous bill asking for more local regulation for Robotaxis. “Regulation helps companies to develop products safely and reduce liability.”

Brauer believes that constant improvement in the ability to see and process input from the road means that by 2028-2030, “we will be surprised to see the number of non-human cars across the US”, and “this will be the inflexion point where this became possible”.

Alina Habba, the acting United States attorney for the District of New Jersey, has stepped down following a recent appeals court ruling that disqualified her from continuing in the role.

On Monday, Habba confirmed in a social media post that she had resigned.

She cited a decision from the Third Circuit Court of Appeals, which found that her enduring work as interim US attorney — despite a lower court order ending her appointment — violated the Federal Vacancies Reform Act.

“As a result of the Third Circuit’s ruling, and to protect the stability and integrity of the office which I love, I have decided to step down in my role as the U.S. Attorney for the District of New Jersey,” Habba wrote.

“But do not mistake my compliance for surrender. This decision will not weaken the Justice Department and it will not weaken me.”

Her departure is the latest setback for the administration of President Donald Trump, which has clashed with the judicial branch of government as it seeks to expand executive power.

But even as Habba announced her departure, the Trump administration warned it would continue its efforts to overturn the court’s ruling.

In a statement, Attorney General Pam Bondi hinted that Habba could still be restored to the high-level post, even as she accepted the prosecutor’s resignation.

“The Department of Justice will seek further review of this decision, and we are confident it will be reversed,” Bondi wrote.

“Alina intends to return to lead the U.S. Attorney’s Office for the District of New Jersey if this occurs.”

From personal lawyer to prosecutor

The controversy over Habba’s appointment stretches back to the first months of Trump’s second term, when the Republican leader began naming some of his close associates to high-level roles in the Department of Justice.

US attorneys serve as the top law enforcement officers in a given district, prosecuting cases on behalf of the federal government.

They also oversee vast networks of prosecutors. In the case of the New Jersey district, there are approximately 170 lawyers under the local US attorney’s command.

Normally, the post is filled once the US Senate approves a candidate. But Habba has been serving in an interim capacity. She has no previous prosecutorial experience.

She was, however, employed as a personal lawyer to Trump between his terms in office, representing him in various civil matters.

Those cases ranged from a civil fraud complaint brought by New York State Attorney General Letitia James to a defamation lawsuit brought by the writer E Jean Carroll. Trump lost both cases and has since appealed.

Nevertheless, Habba was one of several personal lawyers Trump handpicked to join the Justice Department.

They included Emil Bove, who defended Trump against two federal indictments from 2023 to 2024. Trump named Bove acting deputy attorney general in the Justice Department before successfully nominating him to a lifelong position on the Third Circuit Court.

Another example is Lindsey Halligan, an insurance lawyer who represented Trump in legal actions against the seizure of classified documents from his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida.

Halligan herself was appointed as an acting US attorney, serving in the Eastern District of Virginia.

But last month, Halligan too found herself in legal jeopardy, after a federal judge found she had been illegally appointed.

The judge also tossed the criminal charges Halligan had filed against two prominent Trump critics: Letitia James, the New York state attorney general, and James Comey, a former director for the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI).

Political prosecutions?

Habba had similarly overseen controversial prosecutions during her time as acting US attorney, feeding criticism that the Justice Department has been carrying out Trump’s political vendettas.

In March, she was sworn into office. By April, she had announced on the TV network Fox News that she was opening a probe into New Jersey Governor Phil Murphy and state Attorney General Matt Platkin, both Democrats.

She accused them of trying to “get in the way” of federal immigration enforcement operations.

Then, on May 9, she decided to charge Newark Mayor Ras Baraka with trespassing after he was involved in a protest in front of a local immigration detention facility.

By May 19, Habba had reversed course, dropping the charges against Baraka. But in the same statement, she announced new charges against another participant in the protest, US Congress member LaMonica McIver.

Both McIver and Baraka are Democrats, and they alleged that their prosecutions were politically motivated. McIver’s case remains ongoing.

Still, Judge Andre Espinosa scolded Habba’s office for its short-lived prosecution against Baraka, calling it a “worrisome misstep” and “hasty”.

“Your role is not to secure convictions at all costs, nor to satisfy public clamour, nor to advance political agendas,” Espinosa told a federal prosecutor representing Habba’s office in May.

By July, Habba had reached the end of her legal mandate. According to the US Code, interim US attorneys are limited to a 120-day period, after which time the matter of temporary staffing goes to the district courts to decide.

On July 22, a panel of federal judges in New Jersey ruled not to extend Habba’s term. Instead, they called upon Habba’s second-in-command, Desiree Grace, to replace her.

That triggered a power struggle between the executive and judicial branches.

A legal fight

Attorney General Bondi and Trump himself pledged to keep Habba in the US attorney role, denouncing July’s judicial panel as a collection of “rogue judges”. They took the matter to the courts and fired Grace.

But in August, the Trump administration faced another setback. A federal judge ruled that Habba’s continued presence as acting US attorney was unlawful and that her actions in the role were “void”.

The judge also reprimanded the Trump administration for using “a novel series of legal and personnel moves” to keep Habba in the temporary office.

The Trump administration’s case hit another stumbling block on December 1, when the Third Circuit Court of Appeals rendered its judgement.

Writing for the majority, Judge D Michael Fisher issued a 32-page decision, finding that Habba had run afoul of the Federal Vacancies Reform Act (FVRA).

He affirmed the lower court’s decision in favour of her “disqualification”.

“As it stands, Habba alone is exercising all the powers of a U.S. Attorney, making her an Acting U.S. Attorney whose appointment is not FVRA compliant,” wrote Fisher, who was appointed under former Republican President George W Bush.

The appeals court’s decision prompted the Trump administration to renew its attacks against the judges involved in the case, dismissing them as partisan.

“The court’s ruling has made it untenable for [Habba] to effectively run her office, with politicized judges pausing trials designed to bring violent criminals to justice,” Bondi wrote on Monday.

“These judges should not be able to countermand the President’s choice of attorneys.”

Bondi added she was “saddened” to learn of Habba’s resignation. In a separate post, Bondi also defended Halligan, whose ability to continue as US attorney also remains in question.

She accused the district courts of “engaging in an unconscionable campaign of bias and hostility” against the acting prosecutors Trump appointed.

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