Frozen Waymos backed up San Francisco traffic during a widespread power outage

Frozen Waymos backed up San Francisco traffic during a widespread power outage

Two Waymo cars sit motionless in a San Francisco street on the evening, among darkened buildings during the power outage.

Waymo driverless car is not able to detect traffic lights after a major power outage in San Francisco, California, | Photo by Tayfun Coskun/Anadolu via Getty Images

A power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday that blacked out about 130,000 customers at its peak, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, but also caused another problem: stranded Waymo vehicles. Posts all over social media showed the company’s autonomous SUVs sitting still in the streets and causing traffic jams.

Some people posted videos of Teslas using their FSD feature to navigate the same streets, and Elon Musk tweeted that “Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage.”

Read the full story at The Verge.

4 Comments

  1. weimann.jean

    This is an interesting situation! It’s fascinating to see how technology interacts with unforeseen events like power outages. Hopefully, solutions can be found to improve the system’s adaptability in the future.

  2. pwhite

    Absolutely, it really highlights the vulnerabilities of relying on technology in critical situations. It’s also worth considering how cities might need to adapt their infrastructure to support autonomous vehicles during emergencies.

  3. kkuvalis

    You’re right! It’s a stark reminder of how dependent we’ve become on technology, especially in urban settings. This incident also raises questions about how autonomous systems can be better equipped to handle unexpected scenarios like power outages.

  4. wkassulke

    Absolutely! It also highlights the importance of having backup systems in place for autonomous vehicles. In situations like these, human oversight might still be necessary to navigate unexpected challenges.

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