Waymo halted its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday night after a significant blackout left many of its vehicles stranded on city streets.
Many photos and videos shared on social media showed Waymo robotaxis stuck at intersections while human drivers either waited behind them or maneuvered around them.
On Saturday, Waymo announced the temporary suspension of its service due to the blackout. It wasn’t until late Sunday afternoon that a spokesperson for the company informed TechCrunch that service would be resuming.
“Yesterday’s power outage was widespread and caused major gridlock across San Francisco, resulting in non-functioning traffic signals and disruptions in transit,” the spokesperson explained. “Even though the utility failure was substantial, we remain committed to ensuring our technology adapts to changes in traffic flow during such events.”
The spokesperson added that the company is “focused on quickly applying what we’ve learned from this incident and is dedicated to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day.”
The blackout also knocked out numerous traffic lights and disrupted Muni mass transit, prompting San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to advise residents to avoid the roads unless necessary.
Waymo noted that while its self-driving systems are programmed to treat inoperable traffic lights as four-way stops, the extent of Saturday’s blackout caused some robotaxis to sit idle longer than usual as they tried to navigate the intersections. Nonetheless, the company reported that most active trips were completed successfully.
The blackout was reportedly triggered by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation in the city. According to SFGate, around 120,000 PG&E customers were affected, and while most had their power restored by late Saturday, about 35,000 remained without power on Sunday morning. PG&E’s website also indicated that thousands of San Francisco customers were still facing outages at that time.
A recently leaked letter from Tiger Global Management revealed that Waymo is currently providing 450,000 robotaxi rides per week, nearly double the figure disclosed by the Alphabet-owned company in the spring.
This post has been updated to include Waymo’s statement regarding the resumption of service.
