A massive power outage affecting nearly a third of San Francisco’s population not only plunged the city into darkness this Saturday, but has also left hundreds of Waymos out of service.
In the affected neighborhoods, robot taxis from Google’s sister company Waymo blocked intersections and simply had their warning lights flashing.
While a power outage is a nuisance for any driver, it poses a particular and complex challenge for autonomous vehicle companies. These systems rely on a combination of sensors, maps, and real-time data to navigate safely in urban environments.
As can be seen in videos, human drivers had to navigate around the Waymos. The reasons for this total failure of the Waymos are probably related to the lost connection to the cloud, and possibly also to traffic lights at some intersections that were no longer even flashing.
Waymo recently stated that its vehicles are designed to stop or swerve when they encounter a situation that they cannot resolve with a high degree of certainty. While this prevents the car from “guessing” and causing an accident, it lacks the performance required in a crisis situation.
The incident in San Francisco is a reality check for the pace of autonomous vehicle adoption. While the technology is impressive under normal conditions, the real test is how it behaves when the environment no longer follows the rules.
The latest news is that Waymo has temporarily suspended its robot taxi service in San Francisco.
This article was also published in German.
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