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Incident 1326: Waymo Robotaxis Allegedly Contributed to Traffic Gridlock During San Francisco PG&E Power Outage

Responded
Description: Waymo's autonomous vehicle fleet reportedly contributed to traffic congestion in San Francisco after a PG&E substation fire cut power to nearly one-third of the city on December 20, 2025. As traffic signals went dark, Waymo vehicles requested remote confirmation checks at scale, creating delays that added to gridlock and prompted city officials to order the fleet off the road. Waymo later paused service and announced software and emergency-response updates.

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Alleged: Waymo , Waymo's autonomous driving system , Traffic signal interpretation and decision-making system and Remote assistance and fleet management system developed and deployed an AI system, which harmed San Francisco drivers , San Francisco road users , San Francisco emergency services , Emergency responders , General public , General public of San Francisco and Waymo passengers.
Alleged implicated AI systems: Waymo's autonomous driving system , Traffic signal interpretation and decision-making system and Remote assistance and fleet management system

Incident Stats

Incident ID
1326
Report Count
2
Incident Date
2025-12-20
Editors
Daniel Atherton

Incident Reports

Reports Timeline

Incident Occurrence+1
Waymo explains why robotaxis stalled during San Francisco blackout
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Waymo explains why robotaxis stalled during San Francisco blackout

Waymo explains why robotaxis stalled during San Francisco blackout

sfchronicle.com

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Autonomously navigating the real world: lessons from the PG&E outage

Autonomously navigating the real world: lessons from the PG&E outage

waymo.com

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Waymo explains why robotaxis stalled during San Francisco blackout
sfchronicle.com · 2025

Waymo on Tuesday acknowledged that its driverless cars contributed to traffic congestion during San Francisco's massive weekend power outage, saying the scale of the disruption overwhelmed parts of its system and prompted the company to imp…

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Autonomously navigating the real world: lessons from the PG&E outage
waymo.com · 2025
The Waymo Team post-incident response

At Waymo, our mission is to be the world's most trusted driver. We know trust is built through consistent behavior over time---earned through every mile we drive and every interaction we have with the community. This past Saturday, as a wid…

Variants

A "variant" is an AI incident similar to a known case—it has the same causes, harms, and AI system. Instead of listing it separately, we group it under the first reported incident. Unlike other incidents, variants do not need to have been reported outside the AIID. Learn more from the research paper.
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