Mass power outages affect 130,000 in San Francisco and disrupt traffic

A widespread power failure plunged San Francisco into darkness on Saturday night, disrupting traffic citywide and forcing numerous self-driving Waymo taxis to stop abruptly in the middle of streets and intersections.

As electricity went out across large portions of the city, traffic signals failed, leaving autonomous vehicles unable to operate as normal. Photos and videos shared by users on X showed Waymo robotaxis frozen in place, backing up traffic and creating hazardous conditions for other drivers.

Waymo confirmed on Saturday evening that it had shut down its driverless ride-hailing service throughout San Francisco after footage circulated online showing its vehicles blocking roads during the blackout.

“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage,” Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion said in a statement to several news outlets. “Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials, and we are hopeful to bring our services back online soon.”

People observe an area affected by a blackout that hit about 130,000 residents, according to the Pacific Gas and Electric Company, in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

Rolling blackouts affected roughly 130 homes and businesses throughout the day, according to Pacific Gas & Electric Company. By Saturday evening, about 30% of PG&E customers in San Francisco were without power.

Mayor Daniel Lurie addressed residents in a video posted to social media, urging them to “please stay off the roads and stay inside” because traffic lights were not functioning. He said police officers were being dispatched to major intersections and high-traffic corridors.

With signals dark across the city, Waymo vehicles appeared confused and came to a standstill. Social media posts showed robotaxis stopped at intersections while lines of human-driven cars piled up behind them.

Many of the circulating videos and photos showed multiple Waymos immobilized in clusters. In several locations, two, three and sometimes as many as six vehicles sat motionless – rain falling while other drivers maneuvered around them.

People cross an intersection in the dark during a blackout in San Francisco, California. Photograph: Carlos Barría/Reuters

The incident drew attention to how reliant autonomous vehicles are on surrounding infrastructure. Although Waymo often highlights that its vehicles perform better than human drivers in safety measurements, the outage demonstrated how failures outside the company’s control, such as disruptions to the power grid, can severely affect operations.

Waymo currently operates the only paid robotaxi service in the US without safety drivers or onboard monitors, managing a fleet of about 2,500 vehicles. The company began offering paid autonomous rides in Phoenix, Arizona, in 2020, roughly 11 years after it first launched as Google’s self-driving car project.

While Waymo has expanded gradually over time, it – like other companies in the autonomous vehicle space – has also been the subject of federal investigations related to unexpected driving behavior.