Waymo's robotaxis hit by San Francisco blackout
A big power outage in San Francisco on December 21 left traffic lights down and Waymo's self-driving cars stuck at intersections, causing some real street chaos.
With their tech disrupted, Waymo had to step in with more human help, which led to stalled robotaxis and a lot of public concern based on social media reaction.
The company just shared a postmortem explaining what went wrong and how they handled it.
How Waymo responded—and what's next
To avoid making things worse, Waymo parked its cars in a staggered way so they could return to their depots without blocking emergency vehicles or adding to the mess.
While social media painted things as totally chaotic, Waymo says this was actually a strategic move.
Looking ahead, they plan to improve how their cars handle outages and boost communication with first responders—but aren't changing their core tech for now.