SF Presses Waymo on Stalled Robotaxis
San Francisco officials are demanding assurances from Waymo that its robotaxis will not stall and obstruct streets during future emergencies. The pressure follows an incident during a December power outage where vehicles were stranded, raising concerns about the reliability of autonomous fleets during a crisis.
The December 20th power outage in San Francisco, caused by a fire at a PG&E substation, resulted in nearly 1,600 "stoppage events" for Waymo's robotaxi fleet. This mass stalling incident left about a third of the city in the dark and created significant traffic gridlock as the autonomous vehicles were unable to navigate intersections with non-functioning traffic lights. Waymo's system was overwhelmed by the scale of the outage. The vehicles are programmed to treat dark intersections as four-way stops but also request remote "confirmation checks" to ensure safety. The sheer number of these requests created a backlog that the company's 70 on-duty remote operators could not handle, leading to prolonged standstills. The stalled robotaxis had serious public safety consequences, with reports of the vehicles obstructing emergency responders from accessing the substation fire that caused the blackout. This prompted sharp criticism from city officials like Supervisor Bilal Mahmood, who called for a hearing to demand answers and accountability from the company. Initially, Waymo was hesitant to disclose the full scale of the problem, with a company lawyer telling an administrative judge that the number of affected cars was a "trade secret." However, during a subsequent hearing, Waymo executives apologized for the disruption, acknowledging they "did not meet our standards." In response to the incident, Waymo has committed to software updates that will provide its vehicles with more context during power outages, allowing them to navigate more "decisively." The company also pledged to improve its emergency response protocols and expand its engagement with first responders. This event has amplified existing concerns among San Francisco officials and residents about the reliability of autonomous vehicles during large-scale emergencies. The incident is seen as a critical test case for how AV technology will perform during unforeseen crises like earthquakes or other major infrastructure failures. The December failure is not an isolated event, adding to a history of public scrutiny. Waymo vehicles have previously been observed driving through active crime scenes, and in a separate incident in Austin, a robotaxi reportedly blocked an ambulance responding to a mass shooting. Public frustration with autonomous vehicles in San Francisco has been growing. In one notable incident, a crowd vandalized and set a Waymo vehicle on fire during Lunar New Year celebrations. Activist groups have also targeted the vehicles, using traffic cones to disable their sensors as a form of protest.
