San Francisco Presses Waymo Over Stalled Robotaxis
San Francisco officials are demanding answers from Waymo after its robotaxis stalled during a power outage in December. The incident has prompted concerns about the vehicles' operational capabilities and safety protocols during city-wide emergencies.
During the December 20th blackout in San Francisco, Waymo robotaxis experienced nearly 1,600 "stoppage events," a number the company initially hesitated to disclose, claiming it was a trade secret. The widespread outage was triggered by a fire at a PG&E substation, which knocked out power to about a third of the city and disabled numerous traffic signals. Waymo's vehicles are programmed to treat non-functioning traffic lights as four-way stops but also request a "confirmation check" from a remote human operator to ensure safety. During the outage, the sheer volume of dark intersections created a massive spike in these confirmation requests, overwhelming the 70 remote operators on duty and creating a system backlog. This system failure led to vehicles stalling in intersections and blocking traffic, in some cases impeding emergency responders. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie personally called the Waymo CEO, telling them to "get the cars off the road immediately." In response to the incident and pressure from city supervisors like Bilal Mahmood, Waymo acknowledged it did not meet its own standards and has begun rolling out fleet-wide software updates. These updates aim to give the vehicles more context during large-scale outages, allowing them to navigate more decisively without waiting for remote confirmation. This event is not isolated; public trust in the technology has been tested by other recent incidents. These include a Waymo vehicle being set on fire by a crowd in Chinatown and another incident where multiple robotaxis created a standoff on a dead-end street.
