Waymo suspended its robo-taxi service in San Francisco on Saturday night after a widespread power outage appeared to leave many vehicles stranded on the city’s streets.
Numerous photos and videos posted on social media showed Waymo robotaxis stalling on roads and intersections as human drivers passed by or got stuck behind them.
Waymo announced Saturday that it had temporarily suspended its services in the city due to a power outage. Spokesperson Suzanne Filion provided a similar statement to TechCrunch on Sunday morning.
“Due to widespread power outages, we have temporarily suspended ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area,” Filion said. “Our team is working diligently in close coordination with city officials to monitor the stability of our infrastructure and we look forward to bringing services back online soon. Thank you for your understanding and we will provide further updates as they become available.”
The company declined to explain why the power outage had such a dramatic impact on its fleet. One possible cause is that many traffic lights in the city were down due to the power outage. (In fact, the power outage affected both traffic lights and Muni public transportation, prompting San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie to warn residents to stay off the streets unless they needed to travel.)
Some theorize that Waymo may have been affected by an interruption in cell phone service or traffic data.
The power outage is believed to have been caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas & Electric substation in the city. SFGate reported that about 120,000 PG&E customers were affected by power outages, with the majority restored by late Saturday, but 35,000 customers were still without power Sunday morning. PG&E’s website also showed thousands of San Francisco customers who were still affected at the time.
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According to a leaked letter from Tiger Global Management earlier this month, Waymo currently provides 450,000 robotaxis rides per week, nearly double the amount the Alphabet Inc.-owned company disclosed in the spring.
