Waymo Robotaxis Halt During San Francisco Power Outage
Monday, 2025/12/29149 words2 minutes790 reads
A significant power outage in San Francisco caused Waymo's self-driving taxis to stop functioning across the city. The outage, resulting from a fire in a substation, affected over 100,000 customers. Videos on social media showed Waymo robotaxis stopped in streets and intersections, their hazard lights flashing, as traffic congestion increased.
Waymo initially paused all services in the Bay Area but has since resumed operations. The company stated that while their vehicles are designed to treat non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops, the scale of the outage led to longer-than-usual stationary periods at affected intersections.
City officials reported that many traffic signals stopped working, and Mayor Daniel Lurie deployed emergency services to manage traffic flow. Some commuter train lines were also affected. Waymo emphasized that they worked closely with city officials throughout the incident and that most active trips were completed before vehicles were returned to depots or pulled over.
