Waymo suspends San Francisco robotaxi service after blackout chaos
People observe an area affected by a power outage in San Francisco on December 21, 2025, affecting approximately 130,000 residents, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company.
Carlos Barria | Reuters
AlphabetWaymo suspended its driverless ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area after power outages plagued the city on Saturday afternoon.
“Due to the widespread power outage, we have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area,” a Waymo spokesperson told CNBC. “Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials, and we hope to bring our services back online soon. We thank you for your patience and will provide further updates as soon as possible.”
Waymo’s notice of service outage in San Francisco.
Source: Waymo
As power outages spread yesterday, videos shared on social media showed multiple Waymo vehicles stopped in traffic in different parts of the city.
San Francisco resident Matt Schoolfield said he saw at least three Waymo vehicles stopped in traffic around 9:45 p.m. local time on Saturday; one of them was photographed near Arguello Boulevard and Geary Street.
“They were standing in the middle of the street,” Schoolfield said.
The power outages began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and peaked about two hours later, affecting about 130,000 customers, according to Pacific Gas and Electric. As of Sunday morning, approximately 21,000 customers were without power, primarily in the Presidio, Richmond District, Golden Gate Park and parts of downtown San Francisco.
PG&E said the outage was caused by a fire at the substation that caused “significant and extensive” damage and that it could not yet provide an exact timeline for full restoration.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said: 21.00 update on X Police officers, fire crews, parking control officers and city ambassadors were deployed to affected neighborhoods as public transport service slowly resumed. “Waymo also paused the service,” Lurie said.
In the middle of the chaos Tesla’s CEO Elon Musk Published on X: “Tesla Robotaxis unaffected by SF power outage.”
Unlike Waymo, Tesla does not offer driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco.
Tesla’s local ride-hailing service uses vehicles equipped with “FSD (Supervised)”, a premium driver assistance system. The service requires a human driver behind the wheel at all times.
According to state regulators, including the California Department of Motor Vehicles and the California Public Utilities Commission, Tesla has not received permission to conduct self-driving testing or service in the state without human safety inspectors behind the wheel ready to steer or brake at any time.
Tesla is racing to become a robotaxi titan but does not yet offer commercial, driverless services. Tesla’s Robotaxi app allows users to search for vehicles, but their vehicles currently have human safety inspectors or drivers.
Leading the nascent industry in the West is Waymo, Tesla’s chief rival in AVs, along with Chinese players baiduowned by Apollo Go.
Interruption-related outages come as robotaxi services become more common in major U.S. cities. Waymo is among the few companies that offer fully driverless ride-hailing services to the public, despite the high level of uneasiness about autonomous vehicles.
A survey by the American Automobile Association earlier this year found that nearly two-thirds of U.S. drivers say they are afraid of autonomous vehicles.
Waymo did not say when service would resume and did not indicate whether collisions involving its vehicles occurred during the outage.
Tesla and the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration did not immediately respond to requests for comment.
This is an evolving story. Please check back for updates.
