A widespread blackout in San Francisco over the weekend caused Waymo self-driving taxis to die on streets around the city.
The fire from a substation “resulted significant and extensive” damage and caused the Saturday afternoon outage, which came as a result of strong winds that downed wires and brought trees onto power lines, utility provider PG&E said in a news release.
Videos posted to social media showed Waymo robotaxis stopped in the middle of city streets and at intersections with hazard lights flashing and traffic jams forming as drivers manoeuvred around the parked vehicles.
Waymo first halted all of its service in the Bay Area after the glitch, but has resumed business since them, according to a statement from a spokesperson.
San Francisco power outage reportedly caused Waymo cars to FREEZE IN PLACE jamming traffic citywide.
When autonomous systems lose confidence, they stop.
Sounds safe until it paralyzes a city and creates havoc.
— Sheri Unfiltered™ (@FFT1776) December 21, 2025
Though the city said that traffic signals were not functioning during the power failure, Mayor Daniel Lurie dispatched police officers, fire crews and other employees to manage car flow on roads. Some commuter lines and stations closed, too.
Waymo said it was coordinating with city officials during the outage
“While the Waymo Driver is programmed to see non-operational traffic lights as four-way stops, the large number of intersections affected led to some of our vehicles unnecessarily stopping at these intersections with a non-operational traffic light on red for longer periods of time.”
That “added to traffic friction at peak congestion,” they continued.
But most of Waymo’s active trips were logged before cars got returned to depots or pulled over, the spokesperson said.
By Sunday afternoon, PG&E said it had restored power to all but 17,000 customers and hoped to turn the lights back on for those remaining by Monday afternoon.
A Waymo spokeswoman said the company had resumed its ride-hailing operations in Chandler.
Part of the same company that also owns Google, Waymo serves cities including throughout the Bay Area, as well as Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and Miami and other Texas cities. It plans to start giving rides in London and Washington, DC, next year.
