Blackout Paralyzes Waymo: Robotaxis Stall Across San Francisco, Forcing Service Suspension

Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday evening after a massive power outage left many of its autonomous vehicles stalled on city streets, creating traffic jams and raising questions about the technology's real-world resilience.

Social media platforms were quickly filled with photos and videos showing the Alphabet-owned company's vehicles motionless at intersections and in travel lanes, with human drivers navigating around them. In a statement on Saturday, and reiterated to TechCrunch on Sunday morning, Waymo confirmed the shutdown. "We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage," said spokesperson Suzanne Philion. "Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials to monitor infrastructure stability, and we are hopeful to bring our services back online soon."

The company hasn't provided a specific explanation for why its fleet was so dramatically affected. However, a likely culprit is the failure of the city's traffic lights, which went dark during the blackout. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie had warned residents to stay off the roads due to the non-functional lights and disruptions to mass transit. Other theories suggest potential interruptions in cellular service or the flow of traffic data that the vehicles rely on.

According to SFGate, the blackout appears to have been caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation. The outage initially impacted around 120,000 customers, with 35,000 still without power as of Sunday morning, according to the report.

PRISM Insight: The San Francisco incident is a critical stress test for autonomous vehicle networks, revealing a crucial dependency not just on sophisticated AI, but on the century-old electrical grid. This highlights a systemic vulnerability for smart city infrastructure: the most advanced systems are only as resilient as their most basic underlying utility. For AV companies and city planners, it's a stark reminder that digital transformation must be paired with robust, redundant physical infrastructure.