'Confused' Waymos Stopped in Intersections During San Francisco Power Outage (cnbc.com)
- Reference: 0180434655
- News link: https://tech.slashdot.org/story/25/12/21/2048257/confused-waymos-stopped-in-intersections-during-san-francisco-power-outage
- Source link: https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/21/waymo-robotaxi-san-francisco-blackout.html
The Independent notes that "Without working traffic lights, the [3]driverless cars were seemingly left confused , with many halting in their tracks and causing major traffic jams. Local riders and pedestrians shared photos and videos of the vehicles stuck at intersections with long lines of drivers piling up behind them..."
> In some instances, several Waymos were piled up in front of a single intersection. "6 Waymos parked at a broken traffic light blocking the roads. Seems like they were not trained for a power outage," another social media user wrote.
[4]More from CNBC :
> San Francisco resident Matt Schoolfield said he saw at least three Waymo autonomous vehicles stopped in traffic Saturday around 9:45 p.m. local time, including one he photographed near Arguello Boulevard and Geary Street. "They were just stopping in the middle of the street," Schoolfield said.
>
> The power outages began around 1:09 p.m. Saturday and peaked roughly two hours later, affecting about 130,000 customers, according to Pacific Gas and Electric. As of Sunday morning, about 21,000 customers remained without power, mainly in the Presidio, the Richmond District, Golden Gate Park and parts of downtown San Francisco. PG&E said the outage was caused by a fire at a substation that resulted in "significant and extensive" damage, and said it could not yet provide a precise timeline for full restoration...
>
> Amid the disruption, Tesla CEO Elon Musk [5]posted on X : "Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage." Unlike Waymo, Tesla does not operate a driverless robotaxi service in San Francisco. Tesla's local ride-hailing service uses vehicles equipped with "FSD (Supervised)," a premium driver assistance system. The service requires a human driver behind the wheel at all times...
>
> The Waymo pause in San Francisco indicates cities are not yet ready for highly automated vehicles to inundate their streets, said Bryan Reimer, a research scientist at the MIT Center for Transportation and co-author of " [6]How to Make AI Useful ." "Something in the design and development of this technology was missed that clearly illustrates it was not the robust solution many would like to believe it is," he said. [He recommends "human backup systems in place around highly automated systems, including robotaxis."] State and city regulators will need to consider what the maximum penetration of highly automated vehicles should be in their region, Reimer added, and AV developers should be held responsible for "chaos gridlock," just as human drivers would be held responsible for how they drive during a blackout.
>
> Waymo did not say when its service would resume and did not specify whether collisions involving its vehicles had occurred during the blackout.
[1] https://www.facebook.com/reel/4057184557826542
[2] https://www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/waymo-san-francisco-power-outage-21255470.php
[3] https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/waymo-suspended-san-francisco-traffic-jams-blackout-b2888562.html
[4] https://www.cnbc.com/2025/12/21/waymo-robotaxi-san-francisco-blackout.html
[5] https://x.com/elonmusk/status/2002774307659997582?s=20
[6] https://bryanreimer.com/book
Typical AI issue (Score:2)
This is how I know AI are over-educated morons. They know the things they are taught, but can not deal with new issues.
The total inability to do anything they were not expressly trained to do makes them totally unsuited to replace a human - except for Congressmen. :D
Re: (Score:2)
They know the things they are taught, but can not deal with new issues.
Not exactly a new issue. Power outages are a common problem.
Humans typically handle them worse than the teslas.. By treating the powered off light as a green light.
Re: (Score:3)
I'd say its a safety feature. If the vehicle uses remote data to drive safely, the safe fallback is to stop when there is no remote data. They are just not fully autonomous. The big question is, if we want cars that act fully on their own.
Re: (Score:1)
So, after 15+ years of Google development, the cars still cannot operate safely and autonomously.
Re: (Score:2)
Why don't they use rails instead. The solution is so simple ... and already exists. One driver for hundreds of passengers.
If only (Score:2)
There was a system that didn't depend on remote systems to run correctly. Perhaps until we work out what that could be we put a human behind each wheel. Call them taxi drivers perhaps?
Can not pass standard driver's test (Score:2)
Sounds like a Waymo vehicle could not pass a standard driving test. As in, "what is the rule when you come upon an intersection where the traffic lights are completely out?"
Re: (Score:3)
Nobody stops for non working lights anymore.
Driving is AI hard (Score:2)
There is a huge and fragile constraint system in any driving automation. Almost no one trusts AI enough to take those out (except that company which had self driving trucks without safety drivers for a week or so before putting them back, can't just stop as a failsafe on the highway, so they'd have to err on the side of disaster a lot more).
Only remote operators can push Waymo's, slowly, through these constraints. They were clearly overwhelmed in this case.
Something similar will happen if cellular is out fo
Re: (Score:2)
So then why are they on public roads?
needs to work with no network as well! (Score:2)
needs to work with no network as well!
Re: (Score:2)
You'd think that and no working traffic signals would have been the first two tests after power-on.
Re: (Score:3)
They legally are obligated to work on a network, as they should be.
[1]https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/... [ca.gov]
[1] https://www.dmv.ca.gov/portal/file/adopted-regulatory-text-pdf/
Re: (Score:2)
So being autonomous is all a big hoax. The cars cannot run unless they are connected to a communications network.
Re: (Score:2)
And having the traffic lights out is a very obvious edge case.
Re: (Score:2)
Well, it's always been a big hoax. Waymos are technically able to run without connection or guidance within the area that they have been mapped for....at least that's what I've seen Google claim. But these regulations are enforced by the state of California for good reason. They ensure a level of safety and accountability.