Here's Why Waymo's Robotaxis Freaked Out During The San Francisco Outage

"Waymo, the biggest robotaxi operator in the United States, had a rough time in San Francisco this past weekend, when a huge power outage left approximately 130,000 residents without electricity. The blackout also took out many traffic lights, and Waymo's robotaxis were not happy about it. Several social media videos and photos showed the driverless Jaguar I-Pace EVs stuck at intersections, with their hazard lights on."

"The company ultimately pulled the cars over temporarily and resumed operations after power had been restored to the majority of the affected area. But it caused some chaos, and now we know why. The Alphabet-owned driverless taxi firm issued an update, explaining what led to the frozen cabs. In short, it all comes down to too many dark traffic lights, which led to a lot of confirmation requests sent back to home base, where human operators had to review each request and inform the vehicle"

"The large number of calls back home created a backlog, which led to the driverless EVs freezing while waiting for an answer. While the Waymo Driver is designed to handle dark traffic signals as four-way stops, it may occasionally request a confirmation check to ensure it makes the safest choice, the company wrote in a blog post. While we successfully traversed more than 7,000 dark signals on Saturday,"

An extensive San Francisco power outage left about 130,000 residents without electricity and knocked out many traffic lights. Waymo's driverless Jaguar I-Pace EVs encountered numerous dark signals and sent concentrated confirmation requests to remote human operators. Human operators had to review and authorize many of these requests, creating a backlog and response delays that caused some robotaxis to stop at intersections with hazard lights on. Waymo temporarily pulled cars over and resumed operations after power was restored to the majority of the affected area. The Waymo Driver can treat dark signals as four-way stops but may request confirmations to ensure safety.

Read at insideevs.com