US EditionWaymo Execs Testify at San Francisco City Hall About Their Vehicles' Actions During Power Outage
Waymo's software update aims to prevent intersection backups after 63 vehicles stalled during a December blackout that affected one-third of San Francisco, officials said.
- On Monday, Waymo executives appeared before the San Francisco Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee to explain vehicle behavior during the December 20 outage.
- Power and 5G failures knocked out traffic signals during the December 20 outage, which a fire at a PG&E substation at Eighth and Mission helped trigger, affecting about one-third of the city for more than 24 hours.
- In a December 23 blog post, Waymo said its AV software prompted vehicles to seek human `confirmation` at signal-less intersections, creating a backlog after traversing more than 7,000 dark signals and about 70 dispatchers at a Philippines call center.
- Unions and ride-hail drivers protested the hearing, citing 63 reported cases of cars stopped in intersections, some blocking emergency vehicles, as supervisors called for vehicle removal.
- Officials including Mayor Daniel Lurie and USF Engineering Professor Billy Riggs questioned whether Waymo's vehicles could pose greater hazards during emergencies, amid scrutiny after the December 20 incident and stalled-car counts kept as a `trade secret`.
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Waymo execs testify at San Francisco City Hall about their vehicles' actions during power outage
At the meeting, Waymo said there are about 70 dispatchers at a call center in the Philippines to assist cars in the company's global fleet that require human intervention. But on the night of Dec 20, they said the system was simply overwhelmed.
Waymo’s performance during SF power outages scrutinized
SAN FRANCISCO (KRON) -- City leaders in San Francisco held a hearing Monday to discuss problems with Waymo during a December 20, 2025 PG&E power outage. Waymo's high-tech driverless vehicles came to a halt in roadways and intersections more than 1,500 times during the outage. San Francisco Supervisor Jackie Fielder said Waymo vehicles "froze in intersections, blocked traffic, blocked first responders. Systems failed." The blackout impacted traff…
Waymo Safety Concerns During Emergencies Being Discussed In SF Hearing
Concerns about the behavior of Waymo's autonomous taxis, following the December blackout in which the cars clogged intersections and created potential hazards, are being raised at a Monday hearing at SF City Hall.Waymo executives have been called to speak at Monday's meeting of the SF Board of Supervisors' Land Use and Transportation Committee, and they will face questions from supervisors about how the robocars behaved during the December 20 ou…
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