Waymo resumed robotaxi service in San Francisco after… power outage stuck cars around the city, CNBC reported. A power outage caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation caused traffic signal failures that impacted Waymo's automated driving systems.
“Yesterday's power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock in San Francisco with broken traffic lights and disrupted traffic,” a Waymo spokesperson told CNBC. “While the disruption to utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adapts to traffic flow during such events.”
After the outage, which began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and peaked about two hours later, Waymo responded by suspending its ride-hailing services in the city. However, images And video social networks showed that autonomous taxis stop at intersections with their emergency lights on.
The company blamed the outage on the scale of the power outage. “While the Waymo driver [automated system] designed to treat inoperative signals as four-way stops, the scale of the outages resulted in instances where vehicles remained stationary for longer than normal to confirm the condition of the affected intersections. This contributed to traffic snarls during the height of the traffic jams,” the spokesperson explained, adding that Waymo’s actions were “closely coordinated with the City of San Francisco.”
However, the service outages are a black mark for Waymo, as the sudden stop in service exacerbated traffic problems caused by the power outage. Elon Musk boasted on X that Tesla, Waymo's latest robo-taxi competitor in the city, was “not affected” by the blackout. However, Tesla's taxi service is not yet fully autonomous and requires a human driver at the wheel at all times.
