Blackout Strands Waymo Vehicles, Disrupts Traffic in San Francisco
Power outage halts Waymo vehicles, creating a traffic bottleneck in San Francisco
A significant blackout hit San Francisco on Monday, impacting approximately 130,000 residents and leaving many without electricity for two consecutive days. The outage was triggered by a fire at an electrical substation, affecting around 30% of the city and creating chaos in traffic, particularly for autonomous vehicles.
During the outage, traffic lights throughout San Francisco were non-functional, resulting in multiple Waymo self-driving vehicles becoming stranded on the streets. The blackout not only disrupted road traffic but also affected subway services, compounding the transportation challenges in the city.
In response to the situation, Waymo announced that it has resumed its services as of Monday. The autonomous driving company, a subsidiary of Alphabet (Google's parent company), expressed its commitment to enhancing its technology to better adapt to such disruptions in traffic flow during similar emergencies.
