San Francisco Power Outage Halts Waymo Robotaxi Operations

Blackout Impact: A major blackout in San Francisco affected around 130,000 customers, leaving 21,000 without power and causing Alphabet's Waymo to pause its driverless ride-hail program due to robotaxis being stranded on the streets.

Cause and Response: The blackout was caused by a fire at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation, leading to significant damage, while city officials deployed emergency services to assist affected neighborhoods.

Tesla's Position: Elon Musk claimed that Tesla's robotaxis were unaffected by the blackout, although Tesla does not operate a driverless program in San Francisco, relying instead on a human-supervised driver-assist system.

Regulatory Considerations: Experts emphasize the need for human backup systems in highly automated vehicles and suggest that regulators should determine the number of autonomous vehicles allowed on the streets, especially during outages.