A Waymo car stops on the street during a power outage in San Francisco, California, USA on December 20, 2025. Screenshot taken from a social media video. d
Reuters
Three days after Waymo suspended its self-driving car service due to power outages in San Francisco. alphabetThe company that owns the vehicle said it is updating its fleet so that it can better respond in the event of a future power outage.
“We have always been committed to developing the Waymo Driver as-is for the world, even in the event of an infrastructure failure,” the company said in a blog post late Tuesday.
Power outages in San Francisco began early Saturday afternoon and peaked about two hours later, affecting about 130,000 customers, officials said. pacific gas and electricity. As of Sunday morning, about 21,000 customers remained without power. PG&E said the substation fire caused “significant and extensive” damage.
Traffic lights and traffic lights were not functioning, causing widespread traffic congestion in the city. Videos shared on social media showed multiple Waymo vehicles stalled in traffic in various areas.
“We have directed the vehicles to properly stop and park so that we can return them to our bases in waves,” Waymo said in a blog post Tuesday. “This ensures that we do not create further congestion or impede access for emergency vehicles during peak recovery efforts.”
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in an update Saturday evening that police officers, firefighters, parking wardens and city ambassadors were deployed throughout the affected areas.
Waymo said it is analyzing the incident and is taking three “immediate steps.”
The first is a “fleet-wide update” to provide vehicles with “more context about regional outages,” allowing them to take more decisive action at intersections. The company said it is also improving its “emergency response protocols” and is coordinating with San Francisco Mayor Lurie’s team to strengthen collaboration in emergency preparedness. Finally, Waymo said it would update its first responder training “as we discover lessons learned from this and other broader events.”
In addition to the Bay Area, Waymo currently offers paid rides to the public in and around Austin, Texas, Phoenix, Atlanta, and Los Angeles. The company recently announced that it is making an estimated 450,000 paid rides per week, reaching 14 million rides by 2025 in December, and is on track to end the year with more than 20 million total rides since its launch in 2020.
“Backed by over 100 million miles of fully autonomous driving experience and a track record of improving road safety, we are proud to continue serving San Francisco residents and visitors, undaunted by the opportunity to challenge the status quo on our roads,” the company said in a blog post Tuesday.
—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.
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