Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday night after a large blackout appeared to depart a lot of its autos stalled on metropolis streets.
Quite a few pictures and movies posted to social media captured Waymo robotaxis stalled at roads and intersections as human drivers had been both caught behind them or weaved round them.
Waymo mentioned on Saturday that it had quickly suspended service within the metropolis because of the blackout. It wasn’t till late Sunday afternoon that Waymo spokesperson instructed TechCrunch in an announcement that the corporate was resuming service.
“Yesterday’s energy outage was a widespread occasion that brought about gridlock throughout San Francisco, with non-functioning site visitors alerts and transit disruptions,” the spokesperson mentioned. “Whereas the failure of the utility infrastructure was vital, we’re dedicated to making sure our know-how adjusts to site visitors movement throughout such occasions.”
The Waymo spokesperson added that the corporate is “targeted on quickly integrating the teachings realized from this occasion, and are dedicated to incomes and sustaining the belief of the communities we serve day-after-day.”
The blackout additionally took down most of the metropolis’s site visitors lights and affected Muni mass transit, with San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie warning residents to remain off the roads except they wanted to journey.
Waymo mentioned that though its self-driving programs are designed to deal with non-functioning site visitors lights as four-way stops, the size of Saturday’s blackout brought about some robotaxis to stay stationary for longer than regular as they tried to evaluate the intersections. The corporate additionally mentioned that almost all of energetic journeys had been accomplished efficiently.
Techcrunch occasion
San Francisco
|
October 13-15, 2026
The blackout seems to have been attributable to a fireplace at a Pacific Gasoline & Electrical substation within the metropolis. SFGate studies that round 120,000 PG&E prospects had been affected by the blackout, and whereas nearly all of them had energy restored by late Saturday, 35,000 prospects had been nonetheless with out energy on Sunday morning. PG&E’s web site additionally confirmed 1000’s of San Francisco prospects nonetheless affected at the moment.
A letter from Tiger International Administration that leaked earlier this month mentioned Waymo is now offering 450,000 robotaxi rides per week, practically double the quantity that the Alphabet-owned firm disclosed within the spring.
This submit has been up to date with Waymo’s assertion that service is resuming.