The streets of San Francisco saw many Waymo robotaxis seemingly stranded and parked awkwardly in different parts after a city-wide blackout hit the area.
Waymo Stranded Amidst San Francisco Blackout
According to a report by Gizmodo, various Waymo robotaxis have filled the streets of San Francisco with their hazard lights flashing due to a blackout in the city.
The New York Times reported that the City by the Bay saw a massive power outage that caused 124,000 out of 414,000 customers to be without power last Saturday, with about 30% of the residents affected by the issue.
That said, residents and businesses were not the only ones affected by the power outage as it also affected Waymo.
6 Waymo’s parked at a broken traffic light blocking the roads. Seems like they were not trained for a power outage pic.twitter.com/9fBkoxgKwe
— Walden (@walden_yan) December 21, 2025
Waymo’s driverless electric robotaxis were seemingly frozen in time. The Waymo One vehicles, however, did not shut down as they still had power and lights. However, since operations were suspended by the company, the vehicles stayed exactly where they were.
As per witness accounts, some stopped before an intersection’s dead traffic light, and others ended up blocking roads.
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Power out in SF and the @Waymo’s are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach 🤣 pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma
— Iago Maciel (@_iagomaciel) December 21, 2025
City-Wide Blackout Affects Robotaxi Operations
Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion released a statement at around 7 p.m. on Saturday, saying that the company temporarily suspended the ride-hailing service because of the power outage in the area.
“We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work,” said the statement.
Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku
— Vincent Woo (@fulligin) December 21, 2025
While the city-wide blackout was stated as the main reason for Waymo’s robotaxi were stranded, the company did not specify why they had to stop its robotaxi operations.
There are several speculated reasons as to why Waymo opted to stop the rides, said Gizmodo. One of the reasons may be because Waymo Ones cannot function without working traffic lights, and the outage has disabled some in the affected areas.
On the other hand, the report also mentioned that it is possible that Waymo faced problems in receiving and transmitting data amongst its network, leading to them being rendered unavailable.
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