AI Incident Database: Waymo Robotaxis Allegedly Contributed to Traffic Gridlock During San Francisco PG&E Power Outage
Waymo's autonomous vehicle fleet reportedly contributed to traffic congestion in San Francisco after a PG&E substation fire cut power to nearly one-third of the city on December 20, 2025. As traffic signals went dark, Waymo vehicles requested remote confirmation checks at scale, creating delays that added to gridlock and prompted city officials to order the fleet off the road. Waymo later paused service and announced software and emergency-response updates.
AI Incident Database · Incident 1326Operator lens (medium): inspect D4 (observability), D5 (model change gate), D6 (autonomy oversight).
Event summary
Waymo's autonomous vehicle fleet reportedly contributed to traffic congestion in San Francisco after a PG&E substation fire cut power to nearly one-third of the city on December 20, 2025. As traffic signals went dark, Waymo vehicles requested remote confirmation checks at scale, creating delays that added to gridlock and prompted city officials to order the fleet off the road. Waymo later paused service and announced software and emergency-response updates.
Linked entities
- waymo
organisation | 70%
- san-francisco-drivers
organisation | 70%
- san-francisco-road-users
organisation | 70%
- san-francisco-emergency-services
organisation | 70%
- emergency-responders
organisation | 70%
- general-public
organisation | 70%
- general-public-of-san-francisco
organisation | 70%
- waymo-passengers
organisation | 70%
Related graph edges
| Edge | Type | Confidence |
|---|---|---|
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d4 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d5 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d6 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |
| ent-aiid-waymo to ent-psf-d1 | maps to | 60% |