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Waymo Halts San Francisco Robotaxi Service During Citywide Blackout

Traffic-signal failures during the outage left driverless cars unable to proceed at many intersections.

Overview

  • Waymo paused its San Francisco ride-hailing operations Saturday evening as outages rolled across the city.
  • Roughly a third of the city lost electricity, with 125,000 to 130,000 customers affected and numerous traffic lights going dark.
  • Residents posted videos showing clusters of Waymo vehicles stopped with hazard lights flashing and traffic backing up as human drivers steered around them.
  • The company said the suspension aimed to keep riders safe while preserving access for emergency responders during the power cut.
  • Reporting highlighted nonfunctioning signals and possible connectivity problems as contributing factors, while PG&E assessed a substation issue and offered no firm restoration timeline.