Elon Musk calls Waymos 'pet destroyers' and says Tesla's robotaxis won't run over kittens

Elon Musk took a dig at his robotaxi rival, Waymo, calling the vehicles "pet destroyers," and said Tesla Robotaxi has solved the issue of avoiding stray pets.

"What a lot of people don't know is that Waymos are like pet destroyers," Musk said, laughing. "Well, maybe Waymo's made some improvements on that front, but they do run over a lot of pets, and we don't want to run over pets."

Waymo has gotten flak over animal collisions before, most notably after its run-in with a beloved bodega cat in a San Francisco neighborhood back in October 2025. The feline, named KitKat, died after it was run over by Waymo's rear right tire, video obtained by The New York Times showed.

The National Highway Traffic Safety Administration's Standing General Order requires autonomous vehicle companies like Waymo to report qualifying crashes. NHTSA data showed that between July 2025 and July 2026, Waymo reported at least 9 crashes involving animals, 6 of which Waymo described as domestic animals.

Tesla's robotaxi service also reported a collision involving an animal during the same time period, but the incident involved a supervised robotaxi. Tesla also operated a smaller fleet, and most of its unsupervised operations were concentrated in one city: Austin.

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"We have these challenges of literally like: gray kittens on a gray tarmac with tar seams at night in low visibility. And it's like, 'Can we not run over the kittens,' type of thing," he said.

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