- A massive power outage in San Francisco knocked out traffic lights and put Waymo's robotaxis in a bind.
- Waymo temporarily halted its driverless service, while Tesla emphasized that its vehicles were unaffected.
- The incident reopens the debate about the maturity of autonomous driving and the need for human supervision.
- Europe and Spain are closely observing these failures in order to define their own rules on autonomous mobility.
The Waymo's robotaxis and the Tesla's autonomous bet They have returned to the center of the debate after a major blackout in San Francisco left tens of thousands of residents without power and paralyzed traffic lights on some of the city's busiest roadsThe incident, far from being a simple isolated failure, has served as a kind of real-world stress test for driverless mobility.
While Waymo's fully autonomous vehicles were forced to halting services and getting stuck at unsignaled intersectionsElon Musk took the opportunity to emphasize that Tesla Robotaxis would not have been affected by the same situation, although the company itself does not yet operate a commercial driverless service in San Francisco.
A massive blackout that puts robotaxis in a difficult position
The power outage began around 1 p.m. on Saturday and reached its peak a couple of hours later, affecting, according to the electric company Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E), about 130.000 customers between homes and businesses in San Francisco. The outage originated in a fire at a substation that caused damage described as “significant and extensive”.
The lack of supply left Traffic lights out at key points in the cityThis had a particularly strong impact on areas like the Presidio, Richmond, Golden Gate Park, and parts of downtown. This situation complicated general traffic and created a particularly challenging scenario for autonomous vehicles, which rely heavily on accurate road signage.
Witnesses on social media and city residents shared videos showing Several Waymo cars stopped in the middle of streets and intersectionsUnable to move normally. A San Francisco resident reported seeing at least three robotaxis stuck in traffic, one of them stationary in the middle of Turk Boulevard, which increased the already complicated congestion caused by the blackout.
The municipal authorities, including the mayor's office, deployed police, firefighters and traffic control personnel In the most affected neighborhoods, efforts were made to manage traffic in the absence of traffic lights. Even so, the presence of driverless vehicles stuck at critical points added an extra layer of chaos to the urban landscape.
Until Sunday morning, approximately 21.000 subscribers were still without electricityPG&E acknowledged that it could not yet provide a precise timeline for the full restoration of service, prolonging the uncertainty for both residents and mobility operators.
Waymo's reaction: pause of service and coordination with the city
Given the magnitude of the blackout, Waymo decided temporarily suspend its driverless transportation service in the Bay Area. The company explained that its technology is designed to treat non-operational traffic lights as four-way stop intersections, but acknowledged that the magnitude of the incident caused some vehicles to remain stationary longer than usual to confirm the safety of the crossing.
Company spokespeople indicated that the power outage was a widespread event that paralyzed much of the traffic in San FranciscoTheir priority was to ensure their robotaxis adapted as safely as possible to the altered environment. According to the company, most active journeys were completed without incident before the vehicles returned to the depots or were stopped in safe mode.
Waymo claimed to have coordinated closely with local authorities The company suspended service from Saturday night through much of Sunday morning. However, it did not initially specify when it would fully resume operations or whether any of its vehicles had been involved in collisions during the outage.
For the company, the episode represents a technical and reputational wake-up call: the incident has exposed how relatively predictable situations, such as massive power outagesThey can test the redundancy strategies and decision logic of autonomous vehicles.
Technology media outlets contacted Waymo to learn more about it. the exact causes of the robotaxis blockage and in the measures being considered to prevent future power outages or infrastructure failures from causing similar traffic scenarios.
Tesla enters the conversation: Musk's message and key differences
Amid the uproar over Waymo's problems, Elon Musk intervened on the social network X with a brief but striking message: “Tesla Robotaxis were not affected by the SF power outage”The comment, beyond the obvious intention of setting a profile against Waymo, generated confusion about the actual state of Tesla's services in the city.
In practice, Tesla does not yet operate a fully driverless robotaxi service. in San Francisco. What it does offer is a transportation system based on vehicles equipped with its advanced driver assistance package, known as “FSD (supervised)”. This system requires a human driver to be behind the wheel, ready to take control at any time.
California regulators, including the Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) And the state's Public Utilities Commission has made it clear that Tesla does not have permits to conduct tests or provide fully driverless services, that is, without human safety supervisors in the driver's seat.
Even so, Tesla is positioning itself as a direct competitor in the robotaxi race, with an app that allows users Request trips in vehicles equipped with FSDCurrently, even in territories where it has permits for more advanced autonomous operations, the company continues to use safety drivers or supervisors on board the cars.
The fundamental difference between the two approaches is that Waymo's service in San Francisco Yes, it operates completely autonomously, with no one in the driver's seat.Tesla's robotaxis, on the other hand, maintain a human safety layer. This distinction is key to understanding why one technology can become "stuck" in the face of a sudden change in the environment, while the other retains the option of a human driver making real-time decisions.
Two technological philosophies: cameras versus LiDAR and HD maps
The contrast between Tesla and Waymo is not limited to the business model or the level of autonomy permitted by regulators; it also extends to technical approach that each company adopts to “see” the roadTesla vehicles rely heavily on cameras and neural networks that process images in real time to mimic human decisions in novel situations.
This approach makes it so that Tesla does not base its entire system on detailed maps of the environment.but rather in the direct interpretation of what the cameras “see.” In theory, this method could offer more flexibility in the face of sudden changes in traffic signals, provided the software can correctly interpret the scene, even when traffic lights turn off or the expected urban conditions change.
Waymo, for its part, combines LiDAR, radar and high-precision HD maps which are constantly updated. This ecosystem allows it to move with great precision in known and well-mapped environments, but, as seen in the San Francisco blackout, it can encounter difficulties when there is a sudden alteration not accounted for in the maps, such as a signalized intersection actually behaving as a four-way stop.
The blackout has been interpreted by some experts as a sign that the autonomous vehicle industry still needs to improve. improve the management of extreme or "unmapped" situationsIn situations where the system's logic must adapt rapidly without a clear reference to its previous data, the ability to react to infrequent but predictable events becomes a crucial point for convincing public opinion.
In any case, both approaches show that there is still no one unique reference model for autonomous drivingAnd that the market is testing diverse solutions that inevitably face the test of the real world with its unforeseen events.
Public trust and lessons for Europe and Spain
Waymo's problems during the blackout occurred at a time when the Public perception of autonomous vehicles remains very cautious.A recent survey by the American Automobile Association (AAA) indicated that around two-thirds of drivers in the United States say they are scared or reluctant about the idea of sharing the road with self-driving cars.
Researchers specializing in mobility, such as Bryan Reimer of the MIT Center for Transportation, believe that the San Francisco incident demonstrates that Cities are not yet ready for a massive presence of highly automated vehicles in its streets. According to this approach, the robustness of technology has been overestimated in certain scenarios, and the need for human backup systems has been underestimated.
Reimer emphasizes that Power outages are among the foreseeable risks of any major city, so autonomous mobility solutions should be prepared to handle them seamlessly. Their approach involves combining human and mechanical intelligence and establishing clear limits on the maximum penetration of robotaxis and other automated vehicles in certain urban areas.
From a European perspective, episodes like this serve as an external but very useful testing ground. The European Union has made progress in regulatory frameworks for the automated driving and advanced assistance systemsHowever, it maintains a cautious and phased approach. Countries such as Germany, France, Spain, and the Nordic countries are testing pilot projects in controlled environments, with strict requirements regarding oversight and accountability.
In Spain, where there is still no mass deployment of robotaxis or driverless services open to the publicAuthorities are closely monitoring what is happening in places like San Francisco. The Directorate General of Traffic and transport regulators will have to assess how to integrate autonomous mobility services in the future without repeating past mistakes, especially regarding contingency plans for power outages or other urban emergencies.
What happened in San Francisco with Waymo's robotaxis and Tesla's opportunistic message has made it clear that The race for autonomous driving is still in the learning phaseTechnology shows remarkable progress, but also cracks when the environment deviates from the planned script. For European cities, and for Spain in particular, which observes from afar, these kinds of incidents reinforce the idea that the integration of driverless cars must be approached cautiously, requiring human backup systems and clear protocols for crisis situations, while carefully evaluating which technological model—Tesla's, Waymo's, or a hybrid—best meets user safety and expectations.
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