"Amid Saturday's PG&E outage, social media was flooded with posts showing dozens perhaps hundreds of confused Waymos pausing at intersections as they fruitlessly paged central command, causing frazzled humans to navigate around them, which led to a temporary halt in service. As Mission Local reports, Waymo temporarily halted service around 7 pm Saturday as reports swarmed the internet documenting the fleet's autonomous vehicles creating traffic jams throughout the city during a major power outage that resulted in several rolling blackouts, per SFGate."
"Per Mission Local, the Waymo vehicles appeared to stop in their tracks, as cars piled up behind them at traffic lights that had gone dark as well as at four-way stops, as users noted in the Waymo subreddit. We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco, Waymo spokesperson Suzanne Philion wrote. We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work."
"Commenters in the Waymo subreddit thread had a variety of observations while experiencing the meltdown, including seeing many near-misses with human drivers. The Waymo's weren't running through controlled intersections at full speed because they didn't know there were traffic lights. Saw a bunch of close calls with human drivers, wrote dwkeith. They're running through intersections constantly right now. Or bricking in the middle. Either way hope nothing bad happens! added karstcity. When a skeptic scoffed at the estimate of idling vehicles as being in the hundreds, Mental-Reach-231 verified it was accurate, adding that Waymo significantly increased the severity of the traffic standstill."
A PG&E power outage produced rolling blackouts across San Francisco and left many traffic lights dark. Dozens to potentially hundreds of Waymo autonomous vehicles paused at intersections while attempting to contact central command, causing cars to pile up and widespread traffic congestion. Waymo temporarily suspended ride-hailing service around 7 pm and emphasized prioritizing rider safety and ensuring emergency personnel access. Social media and subreddit users reported near-misses with human drivers, vehicles running through intersections unaware of dark lights, and vehicles becoming immobilized in intersections, which exacerbated the traffic standstill.
Read at sfist.com
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