The Huge Problem Waymo Didn’t See Coming

December 23, 2025

TL;DR

Waymo robotaxis became stuck in a San Francisco blackout, causing traffic jams.
The vehicles did not pull over or treat intersections as four-way stops, as a human would.
Connectivity issues may have prevented remote assistance from functioning during the outage.
Waymo is investigating the incident, acknowledging the scale of the outage affected vehicle behavior.
Previous Waymo incidents in San Francisco include getting stuck in construction, a vehicle striking a cat, and a multi-vehicle standoff.
Waymo vehicles have a strong safety record in normal driving conditions, with fewer crashes than average human drivers over millions of miles.
Both known fatal crashes involving Waymo were attributed to human drivers in other vehicles.
Waymo is planning expansion to more cities, including London, New York City, and Washington, D.C.
The blackout highlights the 'public beta' nature of autonomous vehicle technology as it enters new environments.
Edge cases like blackouts, severe weather, or unusual road designs pose challenges for autonomous vehicles.
Other robotaxi companies like Tesla and Zoox face similar challenges.
The ultimate goal of autonomous cars is to significantly reduce traffic fatalities.

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