Waymo suspends service in San Francisco as robotaxis stall during blackout

Waymo suspended its robotaxi service in San Francisco on Saturday evening after a massive power outage appeared to bring many of its vehicles to a standstill on city streets.

Numerous photos and videos Posted on social media, a Waymo robotaxis was captured stuck on roads and intersections while human drivers were stuck behind them or weaved around them.

Waymo said Saturday it had temporarily suspended service in the city due to the power outage. Spokesperson Suzanne Philion made a similar statement to TechCrunch on Sunday morning.

“We have temporarily suspended our taxi services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage,” Philion said. “Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials to monitor the stability of the infrastructure, and we hope to bring our services back online soon. We appreciate your patience and will provide further updates as they become available.”

The company provided no explanation as to why the outage had such a dramatic effect on its vehicles. One possible culprit: the power outage knocked out many traffic lights in the city. (Because the blackout affected both the lights and Muni mass transit, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said warned residents to stay off the roads unless they had to travel.)

Others theorized that Waymo may have been affected by an outage in mobile service or traffic data.

The outage appears to have been caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in the city. SFGate Reports that approximately 120,000 PG&E customers were affected by the outage, and although power was restored to the majority of them by late Saturday, 35,000 customers were still without power as of Sunday morning. PG&E website also showed that thousands of San Francisco customers were still affected at that time.

A letter from Tiger Global Management leaked earlier this month said Waymo is now providing 450,000 robotaxi rides per week, nearly double the number the Alphabet-owned company announced in the spring.