Waymo Autonomous Vehicles Malfunction in San Francisco Power Outage
Self-driving Waymo vehicles encountered operational failures at a San Francisco intersection during a widespread power outage. The incident involved multiple Jaguar I-Pace-based robotaxis appearing disoriented and unable to navigate properly. Video footage captured the vehicles clustering and halting in confusion amid the darkened traffic signals. Local reports indicated that approximately 130,000 customers lost electricity across the city.
Over 30 percent of San Francisco remained without power restoration at the time of the reports. No specific timeframe was provided for full service resumption by utility providers. Waymo operates a fleet of fully autonomous vehicles in the area without human safety drivers in most cases. The company’s system relies on a combination of lidar, radar, cameras, and mapping data for navigation.
Traffic signals and street lighting outages disrupted normal roadway cues that the vehicles depend upon. Similar incidents have occurred previously with autonomous fleets during infrastructure failures. Waymo has not issued an official statement detailing the exact cause or resolution steps taken. The event highlighted potential vulnerabilities in driverless technology when external systems like the electrical grid fail.
San Francisco serves as a primary testing and deployment ground for Waymo’s commercial ride-hailing service. The fleet has logged millions of autonomous miles in the region under various conditions. Power disruptions can affect vehicle sensors, communication links, and onboard processing indirectly. Engineers typically design redundancy into such systems to handle unexpected scenarios.
This malfunction occurred amid ongoing debates about the readiness of fully autonomous driving for widespread adoption. Regulatory oversight continues to monitor safety performance in real-world environments. Waymo vehicles generally maintain high safety records compared to human drivers in operational domains. Infrastructure reliability remains a key factor influencing autonomous vehicle performance in urban settings.
The incident underscored the interdependence between advanced automotive technology and municipal utilities. As robotaxi services expand in major U.S. cities, such events provide data for system improvements. Waymo continues to iterate on software updates to enhance robustness against edge cases. No injuries or collisions were reported from this particular disruption.
