Power Outage Strands Autonomous Vehicles in the Middle of the Road

KatadataOTO – A video showing an autonomous vehicle from Waymo malfunctioning during a power outage in San Francisco has gone viral. Several cars turned on their hazard lights and stopped abruptly because they could not cross intersections due to dead traffic lights.

However, some also stopped in the middle of intersections, blocking other vehicles. This situation caused much heavier traffic congestion than usual.

The outage was caused by a fire at a substation belonging to Pacific Gas and Electric Co. The situation affected 130,000 homes and businesses, including Waymo.

The transportation service company operates hundreds of autonomous taxis in San Francisco. They immediately suspended their service on the night of the incident and only resumed it the next day.

Photo: Special

This issue raises new concerns about the existence of autonomous taxis that had not been previously considered. Vehicles stopping in the middle of the road certainly cause anxiety for passengers.

Nevertheless, Waymo stated that all its vehicles are designed to treat dead traffic lights as four-way stops. However, the scale of the power outage created extreme conditions.

“Utility infrastructure failures are impactful, but we are committed to ensuring our technology can adapt to traffic conditions, including in recent events,” said a Waymo spokesperson, as reported by Fortune.

They also stated they are continuously coordinating with relevant officials regarding this issue. In fact, the company revealed that most units had returned to normal before returning to the depot or being stopped.

However, Philip Koopman, a professor at Carnegie Mellon University and an expert in autonomous vehicle safety, has his own opinion. According to him, the situation is quite worrying and there must be a definitive solution.

This is because autonomous vehicles are generally programmed to stop if they encounter a problem and request remote assistance. Meanwhile, the power outage incident indicates a failure in operational management, not the vehicle's hardware.

Photo: Special

The company is seen as lacking the ability to handle so many robotaxis needing assistance simultaneously. He believes Waymo should have been able to suspend service earlier without waiting for problems to occur on the road.

“What if this was an earthquake? There would be thousands of autonomous taxis blocking the roads,” he asserted.