Waymo says robotaxi service has resumed after making “temporary adjustments” in San Francisco amid a power outage that appears to have occurred affected around 7,000 PG&E customers in the city.
According to a screenshot posted on social mediaWaymo told SF customers that service was “temporarily paused” and that “freeway routes are not available.”
When TechCrunch approached the Alphabet-owned company for comment, a spokesperson said in a statement: “We are making temporary adjustments to our service while we monitor local conditions. We know users depend on us and we will return to normal operations as soon as possible.”
Following the initial publication of this article, a Waymo spokesperson added that the company “decided to pause service for approximately one hour to assess the magnitude of the power outage affecting a large portion of San Francisco and coordinate with local officials.”
Power outages have affected Waymo service in the past, for example when several Waymo vehicles standing on city streets during a blackout in Decemberand when a similar incident paralyzed traffic during a fireworks display on the Golden Gate Bridge on the Fourth of July.
As a result, San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has called for stricter state regulations to “adequately address how autonomous vehicles operate during major incidents, planned or unplanned.”
This post has been updated with additional comments from Waymo reflecting that service has resumed.