Michael Magee, public policy manager of Waymo, acknowledged that corporate officials didn\u2019t proactively contact the city about the outage. The lack of communication was clear early on during the blackout \u2014 Mayor Daniel Lurie had texted Waymo\u2019s co-CEO when the power went out but at first received only emoji replies<\/a>.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cWe acknowledge today, again, that we did not meet our standards during the outage,\u201d Magee said.<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s fleet stopped 1,593 times (opens in new tab)<\/a> for two minutes or more during the outage, according to company data shared with the California Public Utilities Commission last month. Waymo had to send staffers or tow trucks to retrieve 64 of its Jaguar I-PACE electric cars during the blackout. In two cases, city first responders had to get behind the wheel.<\/p>\n The city\u2019s 911 dispatch center began receiving reports of marooned Waymos between 3 p.m. and 8 p.m. on Dec. 20, Carroll said at the hearing. Dispatchers called Waymo 31 times, and one dispatcher was kept on hold for 53 minutes, she said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Despite Waymo\u2019s profuse apologies during the hearing, city officials said they\u2019re concerned that the autonomous fleet could tie up first responders during life-or-death emergencies.\u00a0<\/p>\n \u201cIn a sense, they\u2019re becoming a default roadside assistance for these vehicles, which we do not think is tenable,\u201d said Department of Emergency Management executive director Mary Ellen Carroll.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waymo spokesperson Sam Cooper said staff have trained 1,000 San Francisco first responders to better manually take over Waymos, but admitted that this status quo is \u201cnot acceptable.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cFrankly, what I\u2019m hearing mostly is that you kind of still expect our first responders to do roadside assistance, and you are just going to help us train them better to do that,\u201d Supervisor Bilal Mahmood said.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waymo officials explained how their vehicles and staff were unprepared for the power outage\u2019s ramifications on their ramifications.\u00a0<\/p>\n Waymo\u2019s cars are designed to treat disabled traffic plights as a four-way stop, Cooper said. As darkness fell and the vehicles failed to see the switched-off traffic signals, the stalls mounted.\u00a0 Getting the cars moving again required a \u201cconfirmation check\u201d from one of Waymo\u2019s 70 remote assistance operators, a Waymo spokesperson said after the hearing. These operators, however, can\u2019t remotely drive the vehicle \u2014 that still requires a person in the driver\u2019s seat.<\/p>\n The surge of stalled vehicles created a backlog for Waymo\u2019s staff, leaving some cars sitting idle for longer than expected, said Chinmay Jain, director of product management. There were reports of some Waymos blocking streets for 15 minutes<\/a>.<\/p>\n Waymo pushed out a software update intended to make the cars less reliant on human operators when encountering disabled lights.<\/p>\n The company also said it \u201cimproved escalation protocols\u201d to make sure \u201cthe right people are aware\u201d during outages, but did not share details about this plan when repeatedly asked.<\/p>\n![\"Two](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/03\/-S3840x2880-FPNG.png\"\/)
San Francisco officials expressed disappointment that Waymo is relying on first responder to help restart stalled robotaxis. | Source: Tayfun Coskun\/Anadolu via Getty Images<\/p>\n