Waymo is updating its fleet to enhance navigation following the San Francisco energy outage

In this screenshot from a social media video, a Waymo car is stopped on the street during a power outage in San Francisco, California, USA, on December 20, 2025

Reuters

Three days after a power outage in San Francisco, Waymo was forced to suspend its driverless car service alphabet-owned company said it is modernizing its fleet so its vehicles are better prepared for future failures.

“We have always been focused on building the Waymo Driver for the world as it is, even in the event of infrastructure failure,” the company said in a blog post late Tuesday.

The outages began early Saturday afternoon in San Francisco and peaked about two hours later, affecting about 130,000 customers, officials said Pacific Gas and Electricity. As of Sunday morning, around 21,000 customers remained without power. PG&E said a fire at a substation resulted in “significant and extensive” damage.

Since traffic lights and traffic signals were not working, there was a widespread gridlock in the city. Videos shared on social media appeared to show several Waymo vehicles stuck in traffic in various parts of the city.

“We have instructed our fleet to stop and park appropriately so that we can return vehicles to our depots in waves,” Waymo said in Tuesday’s blog post. “This ensured that we did not cause more congestion or hinder emergency vehicles during the peak of recovery efforts.”

San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie said in an update Saturday evening that police officers, firefighters, parking enforcement officers and city ambassadors were deployed in the affected neighborhoods.

Waymo said it was analyzing the event and taking three “immediate steps.”

The first includes “fleet-wide updates” to give vehicles “more context on regional outages” so cars can respond more decisively at intersections. The company said it is also improving its “emergency response protocols” and coordinating with Mayor Lurie’s team in San Francisco to better collaborate on emergency preparedness. Finally, Waymo said it is updating its training for first responders “as we learn lessons from this and other widespread events.”

In addition to the Bay Area, Waymo currently offers paid rides to the public in and around Austin, Texas, Phoenix, Atlanta and Los Angeles. The company recently surpassed an estimated 450,000 paid rides per week and announced in December that it completed 14 million rides in 2025. This puts the company on track to end the year with more than 20 million total rides since its launch in 2020.

“With more than 100 million miles of fully autonomous driving experience and a track record of improving road safety, we are undaunted by the opportunity to challenge the status quo of our streets and are proud to continue serving San Francisco residents and visitors,” the company said in Tuesday’s blog.

—CNBC’s Lora Kolodny and Jennifer Elias contributed to this report.

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