When the traffic lights went out, Waymo’s robotaxis got a little too cautious at intersections. With no red-yellow-green to cue drivers, the rule is to treat the intersection as a four-way stop. Indeed, Waymo’s cars are programmed to do this, but it seems the scale of the outage over the weekend was just too much to handle.
Social media and Reddit began to fill with videos of stationary Waymos at intersections, and the company temporarily suspended service.
Most areas saw power restored by noon yesterday, although Pacific Gas and Electric said it expected some power to remain out until Monday afternoon.
Meanwhile, Waymo’s robotaxis are up and running again. “We are resuming ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area,” a company spokesperson told Ars. “Yesterday’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.”
“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,” Waymo said.