Waymo’s driverless cars added to the misery of San Francisco’s massive power outage over the weekend by coming to a halt at downed traffic intersections, leading some to question the autonomous vehicle company’s preparedness for emergencies.
San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood called for a hearing into Waymo LLC’s emergency operations in wake of the weekend’s traffic disruptions.
“This weekend has been a disaster for thousands of residents across San Francisco who were left without power during the holiday season,” Mahmood said. “Making matters worse, we saw stalled autonomous vehicles creating massive traffic disruptions for residents, and severely impacting the Fire Department’s ability to respond to the fires as quickly as possible.”
There were reports and posts on social media throughout the weekend of driverless cars stuck at intersections, their lights blinking, seemingly confused by downed traffic signals.
“San Franciscans deserve answers into why Waymo was unable to handle such a large-scale infrastructure failure, and what they plan to do about it in the future to mitigate these types of impacts,” Mahmood said.
The supervisor said he believes that autonomous vehicles can play a role in the city’s Vision Zero goals, but only when they operate responsibly.
The company on Monday acknowledged the service disruption, saying the magnitude of the power outage, which affected a third of the city, was a factor.
“We resumed ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday,” a Waymo spokesperson said. “Saturday’s power outage was a widespread event that caused gridlock across San Francisco, with non-functioning traffic signals and transit disruptions. While the failure of the utility infrastructure was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adjusts to traffic flow during such events.”
The company is “focused on rapidly integrating the lessons learned from this event, and are committed to earning and maintaining the trust of the communities we serve every day,” a spokesperson said.