Waymo resumes San Francisco service after blackout-induced stall

Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday evening. The suspension occurred after a massive blackout appeared to leave many of the company’s vehicles stalled on city streets. Numerous photos and videos shared on social media captured the vehicles stalled on roads and at intersections, where human drivers were either stuck behind them or forced to weave around them. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie warned residents to stay off the roads unless travel was necessary, as the blackout disabled traffic lights and caused transit disruptions for Muni, the San Francisco public transit system.

The blackout appears to have been caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation, a local utility company. The incident initially affected 120,000 PG&E customers. While the utility company restored power to the majority of those affected by late Saturday, 35,000 customers were still without power on Sunday morning, with the utility company’s website showing thousands of San Francisco customers still affected at that time. Waymo explained that while its autonomous systems are designed to treat non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops, the scale of the outage caused some robotaxis to remain stationary for longer than normal as they assessed the intersections. The company noted that the majority of active trips during the event were completed successfully. After the temporary halt, Waymo resumed service in San Francisco late Sunday afternoon.

A spokesperson for Waymo acknowledged that the power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, resulting in non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions. The company stated that it is focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event to earn and maintain the trust of the communities it serves. Regarding the infrastructure breakdown, the spokesperson said, “While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events.”

The incident highlights the operational challenges autonomous vehicle fleets face during widespread infrastructure failures. The service suspension occurred as Waymo continues to scale its operations in San Francisco. According to leaked data from investment firm Tiger Global Management, Waymo provides nearly 450,000 robotaxi rides per week.

Why it matters

The temporary suspension of Waymo’s service in San Francisco underscores the operational challenges autonomous vehicle fleets face during widespread infrastructure failures. As cities increasingly rely on self-driving networks, the ability of these systems to navigate gridlock and utility outages remains a critical hurdle for commercial scaling.