Alphabet’s self-driving unit Waymo said it is reviewing and updating its operating protocols after a widespread power outage in San Francisco over the weekend disrupted traffic and tested the company’s autonomous driving systems.
The outage, caused by a PG&E failure, knocked out electricity to nearly one-third of the city and disabled a large number of traffic signals, contributing to severe congestion across major roads. City authorities advised residents to stay home as police officers were deployed to manually manage intersections, highlighting the scale of the disruption.
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Waymo said its autonomous vehicles successfully navigated more than 7,000 dark traffic signals during the outage, treating them as four-way stops. However, the unusually high concentration of disabled signals led to a spike in system requests for human confirmation checks, which in some cases resulted in delays that added to congestion. “While we successfully traversed more than 7,000 dark signals on Saturday, the outage created a concentrated spike in these requests,” the company said.
As conditions worsened and officials urged the public to stay off the roads to prioritise emergency services, Waymo temporarily paused its service in affected areas. The company directed vehicles to pull over and park safely before returning them to depots in stages, aiming to avoid further congestion or interference with first responders.
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Waymo said it is now rolling out fleet-wide updates to give its vehicles more contextual information about regional power outages, refining emergency response protocols and expanding coordination with city officials and first responders. The company said it remains committed to operating safely during infrastructure failures, adding that it is “undeterred by the opportunity to challenge the status quo of our roads” as it continues service in San Francisco.
Source: Waymo