Waymo said Saturday that it was stopping service across San Francisco after numerous online videos showed its autonomous vehicles snarling traffic during the citywide blackout.
“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” wrote Suzanne Philion, a company spokesperson, a little after 7 p.m. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work.”
About a third of San Francisco lost electricity throughout the day Saturday after rolling Pacific Gas & Electric Co. blackouts hit some 125,000 homes and businesses. It was not clear when the power would be restore, but the utility said it was “possible” it would happen later Saturday.
Traffic lights across the city were down, seemingly halting Waymos in their tracks. Riders and pedestrians across the city posted videos of Waymos stuck at intersections with long lines of drivers behind them.
Many of the videos and images showed Waymos stuck one behind the other, with human drivers passing them by.
Groups of two, three, as many as five Waymos were stuck at different corners across the city, blinking red lights in the rain.
San Francisco, CA (DEC.20.2025)
It’s official. This is the 1,000th posted video from the Sunset Project™️.
Just over 20m views on X to date.
This afternoon’s flurry of frozen Waymo’s across the city of San Francisco causing a historic traffic meltdown has brought about the… https://t.co/DLrvTVLKQD pic.twitter.com/SHxvg2yLQ2
— No Safe Words (@Cyber_Trailer) December 21, 2025
Oh what a surprise, another traffic jam from a confused @waymo that can’t handle the power outage. Also cellular service has been pretty spotty so maybe their remote driver backups are having trouble controlling them? pic.twitter.com/BHjk3JjOzp
— Roger (@OkGoDoIt) December 21, 2025
Joe was born in Sweden, where half of his family received asylum after fleeing Pinochet, and then spent his early childhood in Chile; he moved to Oakland when he was eight. He attended Stanford University for political science and worked at Mission Local as a reporter after graduating. He then spent time at YIMBY Action and as a partner for the strategic communications firm The Worker Agency. He rejoined Mission Local as an editor in 2023. You can reach him on Signal @jrivanob.99.