Mass power outages affect 130,000 in San Francisco and disrupt traffic | San Francisco
A widespread power outage plunged San Francisco into darkness Saturday night, disrupting traffic across the city and forcing scores of driverless Waymo taxis to stop suddenly in the middle of streets and intersections.
As electricity was cut off in most of the city, traffic lights also malfunctioned, causing autonomous vehicles to be unable to operate normally. Photos And videos Images shared by users on X show the Waymo robotaxis freezing in place, backing up traffic and creating dangerous conditions for other drivers.
Waymo confirmed Saturday evening that it was shutting down its driverless ride-hailing service across San Francisco after images appeared online showing its vehicles blocking roads during a power outage.
“Due to the widespread power outage, we have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Waymo spokeswoman Suzanne Philion said in a statement to various news outlets. “Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials, and we hope to bring our services back online soon.”
Power outages that continued throughout the day affected approximately 130 homes and businesses. accordingly Pacific Gas and Electric Company. As of Saturday evening, nearly 30% of PG&E customers in San Francisco were without power.
Mayor Daniel Lurie addresses residents video Since the traffic lights were not working, a call was made on social media to “please stay off the roads and stay indoors”. Police officers were dispatched to major intersections and high-traffic corridors, he said.
When signals in the city went dark, Waymo vehicles appeared confused and came to a halt. Social media posts showed robotaxis stopping at intersections and human-driven cars piling up behind them.
Many of the videos and photos circulating showed multiple Waymo’s immobilized in clusters. Two, three and sometimes many in various places six vehicles He was sitting motionless; It was raining as other drivers maneuvered around them.
The incident highlighted how dependent autonomous vehicles are on the surrounding infrastructure. While Waymo has frequently emphasized that its vehicles outperform human drivers on safety metrics, the outage demonstrated how malfunctions beyond the company’s control, such as outages in the power grid, can seriously impact operations.
Waymo currently operates a single-payer robotaxi service in the U.S. without safety drivers or onboard monitors and manages a fleet of approximately 2,500 vehicles. The company began offering paid autonomous rides in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2020, nearly 11 years after it first launched as Google’s driverless car project.
Although Waymo has gradually expanded over time, like other companies in the autonomous vehicle space, it has also been the subject of federal investigations regarding unpredictable driving behavior.
