What Occurred When Robotaxis Encountered a Citywide Power Outage Is Rather Frightening | Carscoops

      A significant power outage has demonstrated the vulnerability of autonomous taxi systems amid real-world disruptions.

      Waymo halted its services after a blackout caused citywide traffic impacts.

      This incident highlighted a significant flaw in the logic of autonomous vehicles.

      Waymo has established itself as the leading contender in the U.S. robotaxi sector, owing to its extensive deployment and relatively stable safety performance. However, being the first does not equate to being without flaws. Despite advancements, the company’s autonomous system continues to struggle with situations that human drivers typically handle seamlessly.

      The most recent incident occurred during a large-scale power outage in San Francisco, unveiling a serious weakness in the system and underscoring a concerning issue.

      What Occurs When Power Fails?

      On Saturday afternoon, a fire at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation led to a power outage that affected as many as 130,000 customers at its height. Traffic lights went out, public transportation faced disruptions, and congestion quickly escalated in the impacted areas.

      This scenario led to significant complications for Waymo's vehicles.

      Videos shared on social media seemed to depict numerous autonomous taxis immobilized in traffic for long durations, including one seen on Turk Boulevard near Parker Avenue.

      Matt Schoolfield, a San Francisco resident, informed CNBC that he observed at least three Waymo vehicles stuck in traffic from around 6 p.m. to nearly 10 p.m., describing them as “just stopping in the middle of the street.”

      System Overload and Standstill

      Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion acknowledged the problem, explaining that the outage overwhelmed the company’s software logic. The vehicles are designed to treat inoperative traffic signals as four-way stops, but the magnitude of the blackout pushed their capabilities to the limit.

      Waymo noted that the extent of the blackout caused the vehicles to remain stationary longer than anticipated while trying to determine the status of intersections, which added to the congestion during peak traffic times.

      The company suspended services from Saturday evening into Sunday, working in conjunction with city officials to safely return vehicles to depots or stop them along the road. This setback for Waymo gave Tesla CEO Elon Musk the opportunity to highlight that his brand's robotaxis faced no issues during the outage.

      “Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage,” Musk stated in response to a video showcasing Waymo's difficulties. However, this assertion comes with an essential clarification: Tesla does not provide a fully driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco, and its local ride-hailing operations utilize vehicles functioning on “FSD (Supervised),” which still require a licensed driver present at all times.