Waymo Updates Fleet to Enhance Response During San Francisco Power Outages

Written by Emily J. Thompson, Senior Investment Analyst

GOOGL+1.48%

PCG-0.75%

Source: CNBC

Updated: 5h ago

0mins

Source: CNBC

Power Outage Impact: A blackout in San Francisco affected approximately 130,000 customers, causing Waymo to pause its driverless car service, highlighting the challenges infrastructure failures pose to autonomous technology.
Fleet Updates: Waymo announced fleet-wide updates to enhance vehicle responses during future outages, improving decision-making at intersections to mitigate traffic disruptions.
Emergency Response Improvements: The company is enhancing its emergency response protocols and coordinating with San Francisco's mayor's team to strengthen collaboration during emergencies, ensuring more effective responses in similar future events.
Service Expansion: Waymo has provided 14 million rides in 2025, with expectations to exceed 20 million by year-end, indicating strong growth and demand in the autonomous driving market.

GOOGL

$314.35+Infinity%1D

Analyst Views on GOOGL

Wall Street analysts forecast GOOGL stock price to rise over the next 12 months. According to Wall Street analysts, the average 1-year price target for GOOGL is 312.00 USD with a low forecast of 236.00 USD and a high forecast of 350.00 USD. However, analyst price targets are subjective and often lag stock prices, so investors should focus on the objective reasons behind analyst rating changes, which better reflect the company's fundamentals.

38 Analyst Rating

31 Buy

7 Hold

0 Sell

Strong Buy

Current: 309.780

Low

236.00

Averages

312.00

High

350.00

Current: 309.780

Low

236.00

Averages

312.00

High

350.00

Citi

Buy

maintain

$343 -> $350

2025-12-22

New

Reason

Citi

Price Target

$343 -> $350

2025-12-22

New

maintain

Buy

Reason

Citi raised the firm's price target on Alphabet (GOOGL) to $350 from $343 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares as part of its 2026 outlook for the North America internet group. The firm says Alphabet's "industry leading" artificial intelligence tools should drive search revenue growth and accelerating cloud sales. Alphabet is a top pick for Citi entering 2026.

Wedbush

Scott Devitt

Outperform

maintain

$320 -> $350

2025-12-19

New

Reason

Wedbush

Scott Devitt

Price Target

$320 -> $350

2025-12-19

New

maintain

Outperform

Reason

Wedbush analyst Scott Devitt raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $350 from $320 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. Consumer internet companies delivered strong returns in 2025, averaging 23% across 24 covered companies versus 19% for the NASDAQ, the analyst tells investors in a research note. In 2026, performance is expected to diverge as investors weigh factors such as AV disruption, AI monetization, ongoing investment cycles, and growing adoption of agentic AI, the firm says.

Canaccord

Joseph Vafi

Buy

upgrade

$54 -> $62

2025-12-18

Reason

Canaccord

Joseph Vafi

Price Target

$54 -> $62

2025-12-18

upgrade

Buy

Reason

Canaccord analyst Joseph Vafi raised the firm's price target on Hut 8 (HUT) to $62 from $54 and keeps a Buy rating on the shares. The firm said the company's lease agreement announced yesterday with Fluidstack/Google (GOOGL) is not just the latest in a string of hyperscaler data center announcements, it is a standout outcome for HUT 8 both in pricing and terms. Canaccord notes a triple net lease structure, Google backstop support without issuance of warrants/ stock, a 3% annual price escalator, and bulge bracket support on the project financing side, where management expects to achieve a loan to cost of up to 85% at roughly SOFR +2.5%.

BMO Capital

Outperform

maintain

$340 -> $343

2025-12-16

Reason

BMO Capital

Price Target

$340 -> $343

2025-12-16

maintain

Outperform

Reason

BMO Capital raised the firm's price target on Alphabet to $343 from $340 and keeps an Outperform rating on the shares. The firm is citing its Cloud Expert calls with two former AWS employees, with the key takeaways from the discussions being the accelerating cloud commitments, Claude becoming the developer model of choice, and expectations of enterprise AI apps beginning to scale in 2027, the analyst tells investors in a research note. BMO is adjusting its model with higher assumed Google Cloud growth rates rising to 39% from 38% in Q4 and 40% from 38% in Q1 of FY26.

About GOOGL

Alphabet Inc. is a holding company. The Company's segments include Google Services, Google Cloud, and Other Bets. The Google Services segment includes products and services such as ads, Android, Chrome, devices, Google Maps, Google Play, Search, and YouTube. The Google Cloud segment includes infrastructure and platform services, collaboration tools, and other services for enterprise customers. Its Other Bets segment is engaged in the sale of healthcare-related services and Internet services. Its Google Cloud provides enterprise-ready cloud services, including Google Cloud Platform and Google Workspace. Google Cloud Platform provides access to solutions such as artificial intelligence (AI) offerings, including its AI infrastructure, Vertex AI platform, and Gemini for Google Cloud; cybersecurity, and data and analytics. Google Workspace includes cloud-based communication and collaboration tools for enterprises, such as Calendar, Gmail, Docs, Drive, and Meet.

About the author

Emily J. Thompson

Emily J. Thompson, a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) with 12 years in investment research, graduated with honors from the Wharton School. Specializing in industrial and technology stocks, she provides in-depth analysis for Intellectia’s earnings and market brief reports.