"A power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday that blacked out about 130,000 customers at its peak, according to Pacific Gas and Electric Company, but also caused another problem: stranded Waymo vehicles. Posts all over social media showed the company's autonomous SUVs sitting still in the streets and causing traffic jams.Some people posted videos of Teslas using the FSD feature to navigate the same streets, and Elon Musk tweeted that "Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage.""
"Exactly why the cars weren't moving remains unclear, with no public updates we could find on the company's social media channels, but speculation centered on spotty wireless data connections, with cell towers either down or overloaded by people who no longer had access to Wi-Fi, and/or the street lights that weren't operating without power."
"These problems have occurred before, though, as seen in TikTok videos from earlier this year showing Waymos frozen by a malfunctioning street light and during a power outage in Austin, Texas. In a reply to a Reddit post showing another similar situation last year, someone saying they were a former employee commented explaining that the vehicle would send a request to a remote assistant and wait for their response before proceeding."
A widespread San Francisco power outage blacked out roughly 130,000 customers at peak and disrupted city operations. Waymo temporarily suspended ride-hailing services and multiple autonomous SUVs were observed stopped in streets, creating traffic disruptions. Observers and posts suggested connectivity issues, including spotty wireless data, overloaded or downed cell towers, and nonfunctioning street lights as potential causes. Videos showed Teslas using FSD navigating the same areas, with claims that Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected. PG&E reported restoring about 110,000 customers by 7AM PT and continued work to restore roughly 21,000 remaining customers after a substation fire.
Read at The Verge
Unable to calculate read time
Collection
[
|
...
]