Waymo’s driverless ride-hailing services were a high-profile casualty of a power outage that affected large areas of San Francisco, with cars freezing midway across the city and disrupting traffic.
After traffic lights were turned off at major intersections on Saturday, videos on social media showed several cars stopped in the middle of the street with their hazard lights flashing.
The power outages, which affected 130,000 customers at one point, closed stores and disrupted public transportation during the busy holiday shopping period, including many cars from Waymo, Alphabet Inc.’s self-driving taxi service.
Michele Riva, 30, was heading home Saturday evening in a Waymo car when the breakdown occurred. His car had continued to roll while they were in a less busy area of the city, even with passengers crossing in the street, he said. He was only a minute from his destination when the car stopped in front of a “very busy intersection” and non-functional traffic lights, he said, without warning him.
“I stayed in the Waymo for a few minutes, just to see,” said Riva, an engineer working in the field of artificial intelligence. “The problem was that in the beginning there were a lot of people crossing the streets because there were no traffic lights. So I think the Waymo people just didn’t know what to do.”
PG&E Corp., which blamed the outage on a fire at a substation, began restoring most service Saturday evening. As of Sunday morning, PG&E announced that it had restored service to 110,000 customers, but 21,000 remain without power.
Riva tried to contact customer service for about three minutes while stuck in the stationary car, but gave up after the wait time became too long, with the service overwhelmed with calls from other passengers. He decided to get out of the Waymo and walk the few remaining blocks home.
On Sunday, the Waymo app showed a notification to some customers that service for the Bay Area was suspended, affecting at least seven cities.
“Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials, and we look forward to bringing our services back online soon,” a Waymo spokesperson said in a statement Sunday.
Riva tried to order another Waymo ride on Sunday before seeing the message.
“At the end of the day, I know it was an unpleasant situation for the other drivers, but I think it was really a safety issue – I think it’s better to be safe than sorry,” Riva said. “I hope they take this into account in the future, because it’s a really good service.”
Tesla Inc. CEO Elon Musk posted on X that his company’s robotaxis — a direct competitor to Waymo — were “unaffected” by the power outage.
