Waymo Updates Fleet After San Francisco Blackout Disrupts Service

• A major power outage darkened traffic lights across San Francisco, prompting Waymo to pause service and redirect its fleet.
• The company is updating its software after processing over 7,000 intersection checks during the disruption.

A PG&E power outage on Saturday shut down electricity to nearly one-third of San Francisco, leaving major intersections without working signals. Waymo, which operates autonomous vehicles in the city, temporarily suspended operations during the event to avoid adding to the traffic congestion and to keep roads clear for emergency responders.

Waymo vehicles are designed to treat dark traffic lights as four-way stops, and during the outage, the system handled more than 7,000 such intersections. The volume created a spike in confirmation requests, leading to some delays. To avoid adding to the gridlock or blocking emergency access, vehicles were directed to pull over and later returned to depots in stages.

Following the event, Waymo is rolling out fleet-wide updates to give its system better context during outages, allowing it to move through intersections more efficiently. The company is also updating its emergency response plans and expanding first responder training based on what it learned from the disruption.

🌀 Tom’s Take:

Real-world stress tests like this are how autonomy learns. The more it sees, the better it gets.

Source: Waymo