Waymo rolls out software update after blackout stranded robotaxis across San Francisco | Latest Tech News
Waymo is rolling out a fleet-wide software update after a large San Francisco energy outage uncovered a vital bottleneck in its autonomous system — forcing the Alphabet-owned company to halt robotaxi service as driverless vehicles stalled at darkened intersections across town.
The update is designed to help Waymo’s self-driving software better acknowledge and reply to large-scale energy outages, permitting autos to transfer through darkish intersections more decisively without overwhelming the company’s distant human help system, which obtained bogged down during the blackout.
The repair follows a weekend outage that knocked out electrical energy for almost a third of San Francisco and disabled site visitors alerts citywide, triggering gridlock and leaving a number of Waymo autos stopped or stationary in the center of busy streets.
A Waymo robotaxi sits stationary at a darkened San Francisco intersection after a energy outage knocked out site visitors alerts across large elements of town. AP
The blackout, sparked by a fire at a PG&E substation in the South of Market neighborhood, knocked out site visitors alerts across large swaths of town on Saturday afternoon, creating gridlock that uncovered limits in Waymo’s autonomous system as a number of autos stopped or remained stationary in the center of busy streets.
Waymo said it proactively paused operations Saturday night as the outage intensified, with nonfunctioning site visitors lights and transit disruptions overwhelming metropolis streets during one of the busiest buying weekends of the yr.
Videos shared on social media confirmed a number of Waymo autos immobilized at intersections and along major corridors as energy failed citywide, including to congestion as police and fire crews had been deployed to manually handle site visitors in affected neighborhoods.
At the peak of the outage, as many as 130,000 households — about 30% of town — misplaced electrical energy, knocking out alerts from downtown to the Richmond and Presidio and inflicting Waymo autos to stop at intersections just forward of peak night site visitors.
The company said it labored with San Francisco officers throughout the blackout, returning autos to depots or pulling them safely to the aspect of the highway as emergency crews labored to restore order on streets where site visitors lights had been utterly darkish.
Waymo suspended robotaxi service after a weekend blackout disabled site visitors lights and left autonomous autos stalled at intersections citywide. Anadolu via Getty Images
Waymo resumed service Sunday night after energy was restored to most neighborhoods, though hundreds of prospects remained without electrical energy and PG&E crews continued repairs into Monday following what the utility described as “significant and extensive” injury at the substation.
Waymo said its autos are designed to deal with darkish alerts as four-way stops, but acknowledged that the size of the outage led to vehicles remaining stationary longer than common as they tried to verify intersection circumstances amid widespread signal failures.
The pause marked one of the most seen disruptions yet for Waymo in its home market, where the company operates absolutely driverless ride-hailing at scale and has pitched its technology as succesful of handling advanced city circumstances without human intervention.
A driverless Waymo vehicle waits at a nonfunctioning site visitors signal during a large energy outage that snarled site visitors across San Francisco. @brahmsstan via Storyful
Waymo has emerged as the main business robotaxi operator in the US, operating absolutely driverless ride-hailing companies in 5 major cities and logging more than 100 million autonomous miles and over 14 million paid rides as of late 2025.
Its fleet of more than 1,500 autos operates at scale in markets including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, as the company pushes an aggressive growth plan focusing on more than two dozen further cities by the end of 2026.
Despite publishing data exhibiting sharply decrease crash charges than human drivers, Waymo has confronted mounting scrutiny following a collection of high-profile incidents, significantly in San Francisco.
Those embody collisions with cyclists and autos, animal fatalities, software-related site visitors violations and disruptions tied to infrastructure failures.
The latest San Fran incident has intensified issues among residents and some lawmakers about how autonomous autos deal with uncommon but predictable “edge cases,” such as large-scale energy outages.
Critics argue those situations expose limitations in current technology even as Waymo seeks speedy growth.
The outage uncovered limits in Waymo’s autonomous system as autos stopped amid widespread infrastructure failures. REUTERS/Carlos Barria
The company has said it’s reviewing classes from the outage while persevering with to scale its driverless service nationwide.
“We resumed ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday,” a Waymo spokesperson told The Post.
“Saturday’s 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.”
The spokesperson added that “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.”
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