Posted on 12/22/2025 10:52:00 AM PST by yesthatjallen
Waymo, the operator of driverless ride-hailing vehicles, was also impacted by the massive power outage in San Francisco.
Numerous people reported on social media seeing the autonomous cars sitting at intersections, apparently confused because the traffic lights were out.
On Saturday night, the Mountain View-based company shared on its app that it has paused service.
As of 6 p.m. on Sunday, Waymo service has been restored.
Waymo issued a statement to ABC7's Suzanne Phan, writing:
"We are resuming ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area. Yesterday's (Saturday) power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, with non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions. While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events. Throughout the outage, we closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials. We are focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event, and are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day."
The outage caused gridlock in parts of the downtown area with traffic lights out at major intersections.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management reminded drivers traffic signals in the affected areas should be treated as four-way stop signs.
SNIP
(Excerpt) Read more at abc7news.com ...
Welcome to your high-tech dependent future.
They don’t even have cache RAM and instructions to complete the last engaged trip manifest? Battery still works. GPS still works. Pathetic excuse for engineering.
Uhhhhhh....yyyeahhh, but.....you know what. Never mind.
encountering a blacked out traffic light the safe course of action for a waymo vehicle is to immediately pull out of traffic right?
The door opened
You got in
🤖🤖🤖🙄🙄🙄
bttt
I witnessed something similar on a trip to LA recently.
The Waymo was at an intersection turning left. It was in a school zone so hundreds of kids were using the crosswalk. Between the oncoming traffic and the kids, there was no “legal” way to make the left turn. You would have needed to make eye contact with the other drivers and pedestrians and nose your way out into the intersection safely.
I sat a few cars behind the Waymo for about 10 minutes waiting for it to move but it just sat there. I ended up finding an opportunity to switch into another lane and go straight and then make the left at the next block.
I’ll bet that Waymo didn’t make the left turn until school started in another 20 minutes.
Apparently the WayMo taxis were also on "pause."
Only been in San Francisco once since WayMo invaded. Every time I was near a WayMo taxi, I drove the other way.
Apparently confused doesn’t mean they were confused. They were doing the safest thing possible by not moving when the signals were out. Who thinks it is a great idea to have autonomous vehicles driving around when there are no signals?
The ignorant programmers of these computer driven cars don't even have enough mental capacity to grasp a contingency plan for a power outage. Human beings are just guinea pigs to these programmers.
The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management reminded drivers traffic signals in the affected areas should be treated as four-way stop signs.
—
Perhaps these self driving cars have to pass a driver’s test before being allowed on the road.
Waymo with the dumbass name. Waymo needs to come down hard on it H1B IT department to do the needful. STAT!
God bless anyone who dares to use a crosswalk in California drivers only look 10 feet ahead at any speed.
Sometime it’s been known for them to come up on sidewalks and keep going after a hit.
Drivers night time scores are the highest.
Cali is like one Gary Larson Far Side cartoon after another. non-stop.
Question, With no power, all the traffic signals were also out. I’m not sure how the autonomous vehicles work, but if there were no traffic signals working, then you’d WANT the cars to become inoperative, wouldn’t you. And with no signals working in a big city, most traffic was likely pretty much bogged down, along with the autonomous vehicles.
“press one for traffic light outage”
“press two for a zombie out break. activate flamethrower.”
If it hadn't occurred to them that power 'might go out' or that 'stoplights' might stop working - THEN DON'T HAVE MY TRUST. Have they considered a flat tire possibility?
I wonder how they handle a 4-way stop which is basically the same thing.
Not recently but this story was mentioned today in the news.
Waymo car kills beloved cat in San Francisco.
https://www.tiktok.com/@tmz/video/7567071160723131662
A dog two weeks ago.
Driverless car hit and killed a dog in San Francisco; owner Kayla Craig is heartbroken and wants improvements to Waymo technology to prevent future accidents.
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