There's a rally Tuesday afternoon for the bodega cat KitKat who was run over by a Waymo, and it’s being organized by Supervisor Jackie Fielder, who’s vowing legislation for local controls of self-driving vehicles.

It was a self-driving car dragging a pedestrian 20 feet that set off the chain of events that led to the dissolving of the autonomous car company Cruise last year. Could the mere incident of a Waymo running over and killing a cat similarly hurt the Google-owned robotaxi company Waymo, or at least, tighten regulations on the self-driving car company?

District 9 Supervisor Jackie Fielder seems to think so. KTVU reports that Fielder was planning a noon rally Tuesday in honor of the killed cat, a rally that was held outside the corner store Randa’s (3131 16th Street) where that late feline KitKat resided as the store's popular resident cat. Since the collision that killed the cat Monday night of last week, Waymo has since admitted its car ran over the cat, saying the cat darted beneath the vehicle.

"If I were the Waymo PR team, I would be hoping that this whole KitKat thing just dies and that's not happening," Fielder said in a social media video. "Waymo thinks that they can just sweep this under the rug and we will all forget, but here in Mission, we will never forget our sweet KitKat. We will always put community before tech oligarchs and California should do the same."

But this is more than a rally for the cat. Fielder also plans to introduce legislation, possibly as early as today’s SF Board of Supervisors meeting, to give local regulators a say in how autonomous vehicles operate in their community. Currently, only the state’s Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission have any say in the regulation of self-driving cars, and local municipalities have no say.

Fielder’s office said in a release that the supervisor would be “announcing legislation urging the California State Legislature and Governor to give voters at the county level the right to decide whether autonomous vehicles (AVs), including Waymo, can operate in their jurisdictions.”

In other words, Fielder is not introducing legislation to do this. She is introducing a non-binding resolution that hopes someone in the state legislature would introduce such a measure. So someone in the state house, like Assemblymember Matt Haney, would need to take Fielder up on this to make the legislation happen.

It's possible that may happen. The Chronicle’s reporting on this matter says that Fielder’s effort is “inspired by a moribund state Senate bill," which indicates this was a bill that someone brought in a previous year — maybe it died in committee or something. So the proposed old bill could be resurrected.

The Chron also adds that “Fielder has already drawn support from the Teamsters,” and that “members of the influential union will accompany the supervisor when she unveils her proposal outside Randa’s Market on Tuesday.”

Matt Haney is certainly friendly towards union constituents, as are many Sacramento legislators. So this bill that Fielder wants to propose local regulations on robotaxis maybe could become a reality in the coming state legislative session.

Related: Waymo Confirms Vehicle's Role In Death of 16th Street Bodega Cat, as Mourning Continues [SFist]

Image: Lynn F via Yelp