A fire at a substation caused a widespread power outage in San Francisco on Saturday, disrupting traffic across large parts of the city and temporarily sidelining autonomous taxis operated by Waymo, according to local media reports.
The outage left much of the city without electricity, including traffic lights at major intersections, creating confusion for road users and automated systems alike. Several Waymo vehicles were reported to have become immobilised at junctions, contributing to congestion rather than alleviating it. Waymo subsequently suspended its self-driving taxi service in the city as conditions deteriorated.
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Videos shared online showed multiple autonomous vehicles, including the electric Jaguar I-Pace, clustered at traffic lights and blocking cross traffic. It was not immediately clear whether the lack of signal operation alone caused the disruption or whether the outage also limited access to real-time traffic and network data. The power failure also affected mobile phone infrastructure, significantly reducing internet connectivity across parts of the city.
To avoid obstructing emergency responders, Waymo halted fleet operations during the outage. “We paused our service out of an abundance of caution to ensure emergency vehicles could move freely,” a Waymo spokesperson told Mission Local on Saturday evening.
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Service resumed on Sunday after power was gradually restored. “Although the infrastructure failure was severe, we are doing everything possible to ensure our technology adapts to traffic flow even in such situations,” the spokesperson said.
The incident drew commentary from Elon Musk, who wrote on X that robotaxis operated by Tesla in San Francisco were unaffected. Tesla’s autonomous fleet in the city, however, is considerably smaller than Waymo’s, and the company did not provide further details.
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The disruption highlights the challenges autonomous driving systems can face during infrastructure failures, particularly in dense urban environments where traffic signals and connectivity play a central role in vehicle coordination.