Waymo has restarted its robo-taxi service in San Francisco after power outages left vehicles stranded in the city. cnbc Informed. The blackout caused by the Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation fire caused traffic light disruptions, affecting Waymo’s automated driving systems.
“Yesterday’s power outage was a widespread incident that caused traffic signals to be down and transit to be disrupted throughout San Francisco,” a Waymo spokesperson told CNBC in a statement. “While the failure of utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring that our technology adjusts to traffic flows during such events.”
Following the outage, which began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and peaked about two hours later, Waymo responded by suspending its ride-hailing services in the city. However, images and videos on social media show autonomous taxis stopped at intersections with hazard lights on.
The company attributed the size of the outage to its disruption. “While the Waymo driver [automated system] With non-functional signals designed to treat four-way stops, the outage largely resulted in instances where vehicles remained stationary for longer periods than usual to confirm the status of affected intersections. This contributed to traffic friction during the peak of congestion,” the spokesperson explained, adding that Waymo’s actions were “closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials.”
Still, the disruption in service is a black mark for Waymo, as the sudden interruption in service has exacerbated traffic problems caused by the blackout. Elon Musk bragged on X that Tesla, Waymo’s latest robo-taxi rival in the city, was “unaffected” by the power outage. However, Tesla’s ride-hailing service is not yet fully autonomous and requires a human driver to operate it at all times.
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