https://missionlocal.org/2025/12/sf-waymo-halts-service-blackout/ Close * Donate * Sign up for our daily newsletter * Advertise * Sign In Search for: [ ] Search * Government * Business * Housing * Policing * Health * Joe Eskenazi * Community * Restaurant Reviews * Data Projects * News Archive * About Us * Our Donors * Careers at Mission Local * Internships * Advertising * Zhong Wen * Noticias en espanol * Business Memberships Close * Government * Business * Housing * Policing * Health * Joe Eskenazi * Community * Restaurant Reviews * Data Projects * News Archive * About Us * Our Donors * Careers at Mission Local * Internships * Advertising * Zhong Wen * Noticias en espanol * Business Memberships Skip to content Menu Mission Local Mission Local Local news for a global city * Donate * Sign up for our daily newsletter * Advertise * Sign In Open Search Search for: [ ] Search Donate Menu Sign In Posted inBusiness Waymo halts service during massive S.F. blackout after causing traffic jams A man with glasses and a beard smiles while sitting on grass in a park, wearing a white shirt. by Joe Rivano Barros December 20, 2025, 7:42 pmDecember 21, 2025, 6:19 pm Share this: * Click to share on X (Opens in new window) X * Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) Facebook * Click to share on Reddit (Opens in new window) Reddit * Click to share on WhatsApp (Opens in new window) WhatsApp * Click to email a link to a friend (Opens in new window) Email * Click to print (Opens in new window) Print * Several vehicles, including a bus and a white SUV, wait at an intersection on a wet, overcast evening in a commercial urban area. A Waymo stalled during the blackout on Dec. 20, 2025. Photo by Roger Pincombe. Love what you read? Love that it was free? Three people do acrobatics and hula hoop in a park with city buildings and palm trees in the background. A cartoon computer screen stands with them, displaying "missionlocal.org. Mission Local will never have a paywall. All our articles are free for everyone, always. Help us keep it that way -- donate to our end-of-year fundraiser to make Mission Local free for your neighbors. Donate today! Update: On Sunday afternoon, Waymo said its fleet was back on the roads. --------------------------------------------------------------------- Waymo said Saturday that it was stopping service across San Francisco after numerous online videos showed its autonomous vehicles snarling traffic during the citywide blackout. Mission Local logo, with blue and orange lines on the shape of the Mission District Want the latest on the Mission and San Francisco? Sign up for our free daily newsletter below. [ ] Sign up "We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco," wrote Suzanne Philion, a company spokesperson, a little after 7 p.m. "We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work." About a third of San Francisco lost electricity throughout the day Saturday after rolling Pacific Gas & Electric Co. blackouts hit some 125,000 homes and businesses. PG&E said at 8:30 p.m. that power should start to be restored "later this evening." Traffic lights across the city were down, seemingly confusing the driverless cars -- and halting them in their tracks. Riders and pedestrians posted videos of Waymos stuck at intersections, long lines of drivers behind them. Power outage took out the waymos RIP pic.twitter.com/DPte8oOGku -- Vincent Woo (@fulligin) December 21, 2025 Dead waymos all over SF blocking roads due to power outage pic.twitter.com/CAsSxFroX3 -- @jason (@Jason) December 21, 2025 Many of the videos and images showed Waymos lined up one behind the other, with human drivers passing them by. 6 Waymo's parked at a broken traffic light blocking the roads. Seems like they were not trained for a power outage pic.twitter.com/9fBkoxgKwe -- Walden (@walden_yan) December 21, 2025 On the eve of the longest night of 2025, many parts of San Francisco lost power. Traffic lights were out. Fleets of Waymo were stuck and confused. pic.twitter.com/uespcBhijt -- Ann (@AnnTrades) December 21, 2025 Power out in SF and the @Waymo's are causing a MASSIVE jam in North Beach pic.twitter.com/fuvhprlyma -- Iago Maciel (@_iagomaciel) December 21, 2025 Groups of two, three, as many as five Waymos were stalled at different corners across the city, blinking red lights in the rain. San Francisco, CA (DEC.20.2025) It's official. This is the 1,000th posted video from the Sunset Project(tm)[?]. Just over 20m views on X to date. This afternoon's flurry of frozen Waymo's across the city of San Francisco causing a historic traffic meltdown has brought about the... https://t.co/DLrvTVLKQD pic.twitter.com/SHxvg2yLQ2 -- No Safe Words (@Cyber_Trailer) December 21, 2025 Oh what a surprise, another traffic jam from a confused @waymo that can't handle the power outage. Also cellular service has been pretty spotty so maybe their remote driver backups are having trouble controlling them? pic.twitter.com/BHjk3JjOzp -- Roger (@OkGoDoIt) December 21, 2025 Three people do acrobatics and hula hoop in a park with city buildings and palm trees in the background. A cartoon computer screen stands with them, displaying "missionlocal.org. Keep Mission Local free by making a tax-deductible donation today! We have a big year-end goal: $300,000 by Dec. 31. It's more important than ever that everyone has access to news that reports, explains and keeps them informed. Paywalls don't serve anyone. Your support makes it possible for Mission Local's content to be forever free -- for everyone. Donate Latest News A timeline of the stabbing at San Francisco's Ward 86 A timeline of the stabbing at San Francisco's Ward 86 Could anything have stopped the Marina Safeway 'behemoth'? Could anything have stopped the Marina Safeway 'behemoth'? S.F. fire dept. investigating lieutenant who said ICE should 'catch 'em all!' S.F. fire dept. investigating lieutenant who said ICE should 'catch 'em all!' Follow Us * X * Instagram * YouTube * LinkedIn * Mastodon Tagged: PG&E, Waymo A man with glasses and a beard smiles while sitting on grass in a park, wearing a white shirt. Joe Rivano BarrosSenior editor joe.rivanobarros@missionlocal.com * * Joe was born in Sweden, where half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and then spent his early childhood in Chile; he moved to Oakland when he was eight. He attended Stanford University for political science and worked at Mission Local as a reporter after graduating. He then spent time at YIMBY Action and as a partner for the strategic communications firm The Worker Agency. He rejoined Mission Local as an editor in 2023. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99. More by Joe Rivano Barros Join the Conversation 9 Comments 1. [fb8e3f4]Michael H says: December 20, 2025, 8:19 pm at 8:19 pm It's been madness with and without Waymos all over the city today. People seem to think it's Purge Law for driving. And no one I've talked to has seen a single cop directing traffic, even at major intersections like 16th and Guerrero or Larkin and O'Farrell. Are they ALL at the Palace Hotel? +3 0 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 2. [e8dacf6]Joel says: December 21, 2025, 9:38 am at 9:38 am Major eff-up Waymo. Major major eff-up. And we've been here defending you guys from Wacky Jackie and her inside supporters. Get your backup system situated ASAP. +1 -1 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 3. [9d95af8]Brian says: December 21, 2025, 2:46 pm at 2:46 pm Wow. Hopefully emergency vehicles weren't delayed and this event was just inconvenient. I'd imagine that if this outage had happened after a Loma Prieta type earthquake, this would have been much more consequential. Hopefully this is a wake up call for the City to have some kind of contingency in place for these vehicles in the event of a major earthquake. 0 0 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 4. [21142d2]Kurt says: December 21, 2025, 12:04 am at 12:04 am Every one knows a computer will make fewer mistakes than a human in controlled scenarios. But in an emergency a robot car can't think. Thousands of these things on the road could result in mass casualty and injury in a serious emergency. The idea that they are safe is a MIRAGE. And if they are not safe, all they are doing is making profits for private companies. EMPTY f-ing cars driving down the street.... when are the "urbanists" gonna chime in about how dumb that is?!?! +2 -3 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 5. [ebe01ff]Heidi says: December 20, 2025, 9:18 pm at 9:18 pm Divis @ McAllister also had a page lane blocked by a waymo. 0 -1 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 6. [1048ce2]Krystal cane says: December 21, 2025, 6:17 pm at 6:17 pm Nope 0 -1 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 7. [d56b9a3]two beers says: December 20, 2025, 8:39 pm at 8:39 pm golf clap, google, golf clap. 0 -2 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 8. [1b052b1]Love San Francisco says: December 21, 2025, 6:29 am at 6:29 am ANOTHER reason these robotaxis suck. 0 -3 votes. Sign in to vote Reply 9. [8b6ac10]Nobody Important says: December 21, 2025, 9:46 am at 9:46 am ET phone home!!! 0 -3 votes. Sign in to vote Reply Expand comments Leave a comment Please keep your comments short and civil. Do not leave multiple comments under multiple names on one article. We will zap comments that fail to adhere to these short and easy-to-follow rules. Cancel reply Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked * [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] Comment * [ ] Name * [ ] Email * [ ] Website [ ] [Post Comment] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] [ ] D[ ] Leave a comment Sign up for Mission Local's daily newsletter: The latest San Francisco news in your inbox, no more than once a day, for free. 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