Waymo Halts Robotaxi Service as San Francisco Blackout Paralyzes Fleet

Lead: A massive power outage in San Francisco brought Google's futuristic robotaxi service to a grinding halt, stranding Waymo vehicles across the city and revealing a critical vulnerability in the march toward autonomous urban transit.

SAN FRANCISCO – Alphabet-owned Waymo suspended its driverless ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday, after a widespread power outage that began Saturday afternoon caused its autonomous vehicles to stall in traffic.

"We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage," a Waymo spokesperson told CNBC. The company stated it was working in "close coordination with city officials" to bring the service back online.

The outage, caused by a fire at a substation, began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and at its peak affected about 130,000 customers, according to utility provider Pacific Gas and Electric (PG&E). By Sunday morning, approximately 21,000 customers remained without power.

As the blackout spread, social media lit up with videos appearing to show multiple Waymo vehicles stopped dead in intersections and traffic lanes. San Francisco resident Matt Schoolfield reported seeing at least three stalled Waymo AVs around 9:45 p.m. Saturday. "They were just stopping in the middle of the street," he said.

In a post on X, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie confirmed that city crews were deployed to manage the situation and noted, "Waymo has also paused service."

The incident raises serious questions about the real-world readiness of autonomous technology. "The Waymo pause in San Francisco indicates cities are not yet ready for highly automated vehicles to inundate their streets," said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation.

Reimer pointed out that power outages are entirely predictable events. "Something in the design and development of this technology was missed that clearly illustrates it was not the robust solution many would like to believe it is," he said. He added that AV developers should be held responsible for the "chaos gridlock" their vehicles might cause, just as human drivers are.

Waymo has not specified when its service will resume or commented on whether any collisions occurred during the outage.