"We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area due to the widespread power outage," a Waymo spokesperson tells CNBC. "Our teams are working diligently and in close coordination with city officials, and we are hopeful to bring our services back online soon. We appreciate your patience and will provide further updates as soon as they are available."
Alphabet -owned Waymo has suspended its driverless ride-hail service in the San Francisco Bay Area after blackouts plagued the city Saturday afternoon.
"They were just stopping in the middle of the street," Schoolfield said.
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 on Turk Boulevard near Parker Avenue.
As power outages spread yesterday, videos shared on social media appeared to show multiple Waymo vehicles stalled in traffic in different parts of the city.
A Waymo vehicle stuck between Parker and Beaumont, on the north side of Turk Boulevard in San Francisco.
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.
San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in a 9 p.m. update on X that police officers, fire crews, parking control officers and city ambassadors were deployed across affected neighborhoods as transit service gradually resumed. "Waymo has also paused service," Lurie said.
Amid the disruption, Tesla CEO Elon Musk posted on X: "Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage."
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