Update: On Sunday afternoon, Waymo said its fleet was back on the roads.
Waymo said Saturday that it was stopping service across San Francisco after numerous online videos showed its autonomous vehicles snarling traffic during the citywide blackout.
“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” wrote Suzanne Philion, a company spokesperson, a little after 7 p.m. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work.”
About a third of San Francisco lost electricity throughout the day Saturday after rolling Pacific Gas & Electric Co. blackouts hit some 125,000 homes and businesses. PG&E said at 8:30 p.m. that power should start to be restored “later this evening.”
Traffic lights across the city were down, seemingly confusing the driverless cars — and halting them in their tracks. Riders and pedestrians posted videos of Waymos stuck at intersections, long lines of drivers behind them.
Many of the videos and images showed Waymos lined up one behind the other, with human drivers passing them by.
Groups of two, three, as many as five Waymos were stalled at different corners across the city, blinking red lights in the rain.
— No Safe Words (@Cyber_Trailer) December 21, 2025San Francisco, CA (DEC.20.2025)
It’s official. This is the 1,000th posted video from the Sunset Project™️.
Just over 20m views on X to date.This afternoon’s flurry of frozen Waymo’s across the city of San Francisco causing a historic traffic meltdown has brought about the… https://t.co/DLrvTVLKQD pic.twitter.com/SHxvg2yLQ2
Oh what a surprise, another traffic jam from a confused @waymo that can’t handle the power outage. Also cellular service has been pretty spotty so maybe their remote driver backups are having trouble controlling them? pic.twitter.com/BHjk3JjOzp
— Roger (@OkGoDoIt) December 21, 2025
Joe is senior editor at Mission Local. He is an award-winning journalist whose coverage focuses on politics, campaign finance, Silicon Valley, and criminal justice. He received a B.A. at Stanford University for political science in 2014. He was born in Sweden, grew up in Chile, and moved to Oakland when he was eight. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99.