The update is designed to help Waymo’s self-driving software better recognize and respond to large-scale power outages, allowing vehicles to move through dark intersections more decisively without overwhelming the company’s remote human assistance system, which got bogged down during the blackout.

The fix follows a weekend outage that knocked out electricity for nearly a third of San Francisco and disabled traffic signals citywide, triggering gridlock and leaving multiple Waymo vehicles stopped or stationary in the middle of busy streets.

A Waymo robotaxi sits stationary at a darkened San Francisco intersection after a power outage knocked out traffic signals across large parts of the city. AP

The blackout, sparked by a fire at a PG&E substation in the South of Market neighborhood, knocked out traffic signals across large swaths of the city on Saturday afternoon, creating gridlock that exposed limits in Waymo’s autonomous system as multiple vehicles stopped or remained stationary in the middle of busy streets.

Waymo said it proactively paused operations Saturday evening as the outage intensified, with nonfunctioning traffic lights and transit disruptions overwhelming city streets during one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

Videos shared on social media showed multiple Waymo vehicles immobilized at intersections and along major corridors as power failed citywide, adding to congestion as police and fire crews were deployed to manually manage traffic in affected neighborhoods.

At the height of the outage, as many as 130,000 households — about 30% of the city — lost electricity, knocking out signals from downtown to the Richmond and Presidio and causing Waymo vehicles to stop at intersections just ahead of peak evening traffic.

The company said it worked with San Francisco officials throughout the blackout, returning vehicles to depots or pulling them safely to the side of the road as emergency crews worked to restore order on streets where traffic lights were completely dark.

Waymo suspended robotaxi service after a weekend blackout disabled traffic lights and left autonomous vehicles stalled at intersections citywide. Anadolu via Getty Images

Waymo resumed service Sunday evening after power was restored to most neighborhoods, though thousands of customers remained without electricity and PG&E crews continued repairs into Monday following what the utility described as “significant and extensive” damage at the substation.

Waymo said its vehicles are designed to treat dark signals as four-way stops, but acknowledged that the scale of the outage led to cars remaining stationary longer than usual as they attempted to confirm intersection conditions amid widespread signal failures.

The pause marked one of the most visible disruptions yet for Waymo in its home market, where the company operates fully driverless ride-hailing at scale and has pitched its technology as capable of handling complex urban conditions without human intervention.

A driverless Waymo vehicle waits at a nonfunctioning traffic signal during a massive power outage that snarled traffic across San Francisco. @brahmsstan via Storyful

Waymo has emerged as the leading commercial robotaxi operator in the US, running fully driverless ride-hailing services in five major cities and logging more than 100 million autonomous miles and over 14 million paid rides as of late 2025.

Its fleet of more than 1,500 vehicles operates at scale in markets including Phoenix, Los Angeles, Austin and Atlanta, as the company pushes an aggressive expansion plan targeting more than two dozen additional cities by the end of 2026.

Despite publishing data showing sharply lower crash rates than human drivers, Waymo has faced mounting scrutiny following a series of high-profile incidents, particularly in San Francisco.

Start your day with all you need to know

Morning Report delivers the latest news, videos, photos and more.

Thanks for signing up!

Those include collisions with cyclists and vehicles, animal fatalities, software-related traffic violations and disruptions tied to infrastructure failures.

The latest San Fran incident has intensified concerns among residents and some lawmakers about how autonomous vehicles handle rare but predictable “edge cases,” such as large-scale power outages.

Critics argue those scenarios expose limitations in current technology even as Waymo seeks rapid growth.

The outage exposed limits in Waymo’s autonomous system as vehicles stopped amid widespread infrastructure failures. REUTERS/Carlos Barria

The company has said it is reviewing lessons from the outage while continuing to scale its driverless service nationwide.

“We resumed ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area on Sunday,” a Waymo spokesperson told The Post.

“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 spokesperson added that “throughout the outage, we closely coordinated with San Francisco city officials.”

“We are 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.”

The post Waymo rolls out software update after blackout stranded robotaxis across San Francisco appeared first on Our Story Insight.

Barely two days after Russell Vought, the new acting director of the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, ordered the agency to close its office and halt all its work, employees spent Monday in a state of deep confusion about what they should — or should not — be doing.

Mr. Vought, the recently confirmed director of the Office of Management and Budget, whom President Trump installed late Friday as the consumer bureau’s temporary leader, sent an all-staff email on Monday reiterating the instructions he issued over the weekend: Stop everything.

“Stand down from performing any work task,” Mr. Vought wrote. “Employees should not come into the office.” Workers were told to contact Mark Paoletta, named in the email as the agency’s chief legal officer, for approval before doing anything at all.

On encrypted chat apps and an instant-message platform run by the consumer bureau’s union, employees tried to decipher what, exactly, Mr. Vought’s instructions meant. Could they talk to one another on the bureau’s Microsoft Teams messaging system? Could they read their email, or would that be a violation of the stop-work command? Could they use their unexpected down time to complete required online training programs?

No answers were forthcoming, said several agency employees, who asked not to be named because workers had been ordered not to speak publicly. Department leaders were left to field questions from alarmed employees without any guidance from their new bosses on what to say. Bureau representatives and Mr. Paoletta did not respond to requests for comment.

An email on Monday from Mr. Paoletta to the bureau’s enforcement lawyers told them that the acting director would soon be establishing “new enforcement priorities.”

A sudden, complete halt to the work of a prudential regulator — agencies like the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, which are assigned to oversee the safety of America’s institutions and guard against systemic risks — has no precedent. Examiners who typically work on site at banks and other lenders they oversee stayed home, and agency lawyers scrambled to figure out how to handle court deadlines this week on several high-profile enforcement cases.

Richard Cordray, appointed by President Barack Obama as the agency’s inaugural director after its creation in 2011, said he considered Mr. Vought’s stop-work order illegal.

“President Trump and his people, many of whom are not even properly members of the government, are taking a wrecking ball to our government,” said Mr. Cordray, who left the bureau in 2017. “He dislikes the law, and he’s trying to ignore it and act as though it doesn’t exist. That’s not his role. We don’t have a king in our society like that, and that’s deliberate on the part of our founding fathers.”

The consumer bureau’s staff union sued Mr. Vought on Sunday night, challenging the legality of his stop-work order. Several employees said they hoped the courts would act soon to clarify a situation that multiple people described as “surreal.” Without any guidance from above, colleagues turned to one another for intel and gallows humor.

One popular discussion topic was the growing number of people from Elon Musk’s government efficiency team who had gained access to the consumer bureau’s computer systems. Mr. Musk’s team arrived Friday morning, and by Monday had grown to include half a dozen people whose names appeared in recent days in the bureau’s internal staff directory.

“Like with U.S. A.I.D., it’s been quite a bonding experience,” said one of the agency employees who asked not to be named. “It’s fascinating to watch people step into leadership roles to connect people and share information.”

Bureau workers, consumer advocates and several Democratic lawmakers staged a rally Monday afternoon outside the consumer bureau’s closed headquarters.

Waving placards bearing slogans including “Stop the Billionaire Grift!” and “Nobody Elected Elon!,” attendees cheered as speakers pledged to fight what many described as an illegal attempt to dismantle the agency.

“We’re going to shut down the Elon Musk operation,” Senator Chris Van Hollen, Democrat of Maryland, told the crowd.

Describing Mr. Musk as “the co-president now of the United States of America,” Representative Maxine Waters of California denounced him as a “gangster” and used a profanity in her invitation to Mr. Musk to “come here and face us.”

“He’s not going to kill the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau,” Ms. Waters said. “We will not allow it.”

Jess Bidgood contributed reporting.

The post CFPB Employees Left Stranded and Confused After Stop-Work Orders appeared first on Our Story Insight.