Waymo's Driverless Cars Stuck During San Francisco Outage

Waymo's autonomous vehicles faced operational challenges during a significant power outage in San Francisco. Witnesses reported seeing Waymo cars stuck at intersections, apparently confused due to non-functioning traffic lights.

On Saturday night, Waymo paused its ride-hailing service in the city, later resuming it on Sunday afternoon after power was restored. The outage began shortly after 1 p.m. on Saturday, affecting over 130,000 homes and businesses, with a fire at a PG&E substation cited as the cause.

Waymo stated it coordinated with city officials throughout the outage and is focused on integrating lessons learned from the event. This incident highlights vulnerabilities in the infrastructure supporting autonomous transport services.

The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management reminded drivers to treat non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stop signs. PG&E reported that power restoration was expected to be complete by Monday afternoon.