Waymo pauses San Francisco service during power outage

Waymo paused its robotaxi service in San Francisco for approximately one hour amid a power outage that appears to have affected around 7,000 customers of utility PG&E, before confirming that service had resumed. A screenshot circulated on social media showed Waymo telling San Francisco customers that its service had been paused and that freeway routes were unavailable. Asked for comment, a spokesperson for the Alphabet-owned company said in a statement: “We are making temporary adjustments to our service while we monitor local conditions. We know riders depend on us, and we will return to normal operations as soon as possible.” A Waymo spokesperson later added that the company had decided to pause service to assess the scale of the outage and coordinate with local officials.

The pause is not the company’s first weather- or grid-related disruption in San Francisco. Waymo vehicles stalled on city streets during a blackout in December, and a similar incident paralyzed traffic during a Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show on the Fourth of July. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has called for tougher state regulations to address how autonomous vehicles operate during major incidents, whether planned or unplanned.

Why it matters

Repeated grid-related service interruptions give San Francisco officials fresh grounds to push for autonomous-vehicle rules specifically covering emergency and outage conditions, at a time when robotaxi operators are trying to expand rather than draw new regulatory scrutiny.