It was supposed to be a typical rainy Saturday in San Francisco on December 20, 2025—the kind where holiday shoppers bustle through Union Square and commuters zip across town in gleaming white Waymo robotaxis. But around midday, everything changed. A fire erupted at a Pacific Gas & Electric (PG&E) substation on Eighth and Mission Streets, plunging roughly 130,000 customers—about 30% of the city—into darkness. Traffic lights went black, public transit ground to a halt, and in a twist that felt straight out of a tech dystopia, hundreds of Waymo’s self-driving vehicles froze in place, turning busy intersections into scenes of utter chaos.
Meet Alex Rivera, a longtime San Francisco resident and frequent Waymo rider, who found himself stuck inside one of the stalled robotaxis at a darkened intersection in the Mission District. “The car just stopped,” he recalls, frustration evident in his voice. “Hazards flashing, doors locked at first—I had to wait for remote support to unlock them. Meanwhile, horns were blaring everywhere, and human drivers were weaving around these frozen Jaguars like obstacles in a video game.” Alex eventually exited safely, but his experience mirrored dozens shared across social media: passengers trapped briefly, vehicles blocking lanes, and near-collisions as frustrated drivers navigated the mayhem.
Videos flooded platforms like X and TikTok almost immediately. One clip showed six Waymos clustered at a single intersection, hazards blinking in unison under the rain, while human-driven cars honked furiously behind them. Another captured a line of robotaxis stalled bumper-to-bumper in North Beach, turning a normally vibrant neighborhood into a parking lot. “Power outage took out the Waymos RIP,” quipped one viral post, garnering thousands of views.
The Blackout: From Substation Fire to Citywide Disruption
The outage began escalating in the early afternoon, triggered by the substation blaze amid stormy weather. PG&E crews battled the fire with carbon dioxide extinguishers while working to reroute power. Neighborhoods from the Richmond and Sunset districts to Golden Gate Park, Haight-Ashbury, and parts of downtown went dark. BART stations at Powell and Civic Center closed, Muni lines halted, and the Central Subway shut down temporarily.
San Francisco’s Department of Emergency Management urged residents to treat darkened intersections as four-way stops and warned against indoor use of generators due to carbon monoxide risks. Mayor Daniel Lurie echoed the plea: “Please stay off the roads and stay inside.” But with holiday errands and evening plans disrupted, many ignored the advice—only to encounter the unexpected roadblocks posed by Waymo’s fleet.
Waymo’s Response: Suspension Amid “Paralyzed” Fleet
By late afternoon, reports poured in of Waymo vehicles “bricking”—industry slang for becoming inoperable—at intersections across the city. The robotaxis, reliant on precise perception of traffic signals, appeared programmed to halt indefinitely when lights went out, treating the absence of a signal as an eternal red.
Waymo, Alphabet’s autonomous vehicle subsidiary operating hundreds of robotaxis in San Francisco, acted swiftly. Around 7-8 p.m., spokesperson Suzanne Philion announced: “We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco. We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need.”
The suspension extended beyond the blackout zone in some cases, with riders in the South Bay reporting paused service. No injuries were reported from the stalled vehicles, but the incident raised eyebrows about edge cases in autonomous driving. Critics on Reddit and X pointed out that human drivers typically proceed cautiously through dark intersections, while Waymo’s conservative approach—prioritizing safety—exacerbated gridlock in a large-scale failure.
Human Stories from the Darkness
For residents like Maria Gonzalez, a nurse heading home after a shift, the outage turned a routine Waymo ride into an ordeal. “My car stopped dead at Geary and Masonic,” she shared in a widely circulated video. “I was just sitting there, watching traffic pile up.” Others, like retiree Tom Harlan in the Presidio, relied on flashlights and candles, reminiscing about past blackouts but noting this one’s unique tech twist: “I’ve seen outages before, but never ones where the robots quit on us.”
Emergency responders navigated carefully, with some reports of stalled Waymos briefly hindering access—though Waymo emphasized coordination with first responders. By evening, power began restoring in chunks, with most customers back online overnight. PG&E reported only about 10% still affected by late Saturday.
Broader Implications: A Wake-Up Call for the Autonomous Future?
This blackout wasn’t the first challenge for San Francisco’s robotaxi era—Waymo has faced scrutiny over past incidents like clustering in dead-end streets or confusion from fireworks—but it was the most widespread. With over 800 Waymos in the Bay Area, their integration into daily traffic is deepening. The event underscored a key vulnerability: even the most advanced AI struggles when critical infrastructure fails.
Supporters argue it’s a solvable “edge case,” ripe for over-the-air updates—perhaps teaching vehicles to treat powerless signals like four-way stops. Detractors see it as evidence that full autonomy isn’t ready for real-world unpredictability, especially in disaster-prone areas.
As power flickered back on and the city exhaled, one thing was clear: In the cradle of tech innovation, a simple substation fire revealed how intertwined—and fragile—our future mobility has become. For Alex Rivera and thousands like him, it was a stark reminder: The driverless revolution is here, but it’s not invincible.
As San Francisco heads into the holidays, residents are left pondering: What happens next time the lights go out?
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