Waymo Resumes Operations in San Francisco Post Power Outage

Traffic Disruptions Due to Blackout Hinder Robo-Taxis

Waymo has restored its driverless taxi service in San Francisco following a city-wide power outage, which had temporarily immobilized its vehicles. The disruption, stemming from a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation, interfered with traffic lights, impacting Waymo's autonomous navigation systems.

A representative from Waymo informed CNBC, "The widespread power failure led to significant traffic jams in San Francisco, with streetlights malfunctioning and public transit facing interruptions. Even though the infrastructure breakdown was major, we're dedicated to adapting our systems to manage traffic efficiently during such incidents."

The outage began around 1:09 PM on a Saturday, reaching its worst approximately two hours later. In response, Waymo paused its ride services in the area. Social media platforms, however, showed autonomous vehicles halted at various intersections, hazard lights blinking.

Waymo attributed the service interruption to the blackout's magnitude. "Though our autonomous system treats non-operational signals like a four-way stop, the extensive outage caused our vehicles to linger at intersections longer than typical to ascertain the traffic conditions. This led to increased traffic congestion," the spokesperson noted, adding that they worked closely with city officials in managing the situation.

Despite these efforts, the pause in service marks a setback for Waymo, as the situation worsened the traffic logjam. Meanwhile, Elon Musk took to X to highlight that Tesla, a direct competitor in the autonomous vehicle space, remained unimpacted by the power cut. Nevertheless, Tesla's service isn't fully autonomous, as it still necessitates a human driver to oversee the vehicle.