A power outage that occurred last Saturday (20) in San Francisco caused total chaos in the city, leaving around 130,000 people without electricity.
It all started with a fire at an electrical substation, according to official reports. As a result of the outage, traffic lights were shut down in several areas, while public transportation services were interrupted.
An unexpected consequence of the blackout was that Waymo’s self-driving taxis practically “panicked,” remaining stationary in the middle of the streets while human-driven vehicles piled up behind them.
Due to traffic problems caused by the autonomous cars, Waymo temporarily suspended its services in the city, and operations only returned to normal on Sunday (21).
In a press statement, the company said the measure was aimed at preserving passenger safety and ensuring that emergency teams could move freely through the streets during the outage.
Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku
— Vincent Woo (@fulligin) December 21, 2025
Waymo noted that its self-driving taxis are programmed to interpret a dark traffic light as a four-way stop, moving only after coming to a full stop and waiting for a safe opportunity to proceed.
However, according to the company, the issue stemmed from the scale of the outage, which affected a very large portion of the city. This caused some cars to remain stopped for too long while trying to process what was happening around them.
Additionally, the drop in internet connectivity may have disrupted vehicle communication with company systems, which appears to have delayed more complex decision-making.
It is worth noting that even in situations where the car cannot process an adverse situation and act accordingly, the vehicle can be remotely controlled by a Waymo operator. However, lack of stable connectivity can hinder this process.
To The Verge, a Waymo spokesperson added that the company is “focused on quickly integrating lessons learned from this event and is committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day.”
Photo and video: Unsplash / X @fulligin. This content was created with the help of AI and reviewed by the editorial team.
