Waymo to update software after power outage stalls robotaxis
Waymo said it will update its self-driving software and improve emergency response protocols after a widespread power outage in San Francisco caused several of its robotaxis to stall, worsening traffic congestion across parts of the city.
The incident occurred Saturday evening after a fire at a PG&E substation knocked out electricity to nearly one-third of San Francisco, affecting around 130,000 residents and forcing some businesses to temporarily shut down. Waymo paused its ride-hailing service during the outage, News.Az reports, citing Reuters.
Videos shared on social media showed Waymo vehicles stopped at intersections, their hazard lights flashing as traffic signals went dark due to the power failure.
Waymo said its vehicles are designed to safely handle non-functioning traffic lights by treating them as four-way stops. However, during the outage, the unusually high number of dark intersections caused vehicles to request remote confirmation checks more frequently than usual.
“While we successfully navigated more than 7,000 dark traffic signals, the outage created a concentrated spike in confirmation requests,” Waymo said. “In some cases, this led to response delays that contributed to congestion on already overwhelmed streets.”
The company said the confirmation system was appropriate during early deployment but now needs refinement as Waymo operates at a much larger scale.
Waymo is rolling out fleet-wide software updates that will give vehicles specific power-outage context, allowing them to make decisions more confidently without unnecessary delays. The company also said it will upgrade emergency response protocols based on lessons learned from the incident.
Waymo resumed service in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday. The company operates more than 2,500 autonomous vehicles across San Francisco, Los Angeles, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and other cities.
On Monday, the California Public Utilities Commission (CPUC) confirmed it is reviewing the incident involving stalled Waymo vehicles. The CPUC, along with California’s Department of Motor Vehicles, oversees the testing and commercial deployment of robotaxis in the state.
Earlier this month, Waymo issued a software recall after Texas officials said its vehicles illegally passed stopped school buses at least 19 times. That issue prompted the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) to open a federal probe in October.
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