San Francisco power outage left Waymo's self-driving cars stranded at intersections
TL;DR
A power outage in San Francisco caused Waymo's self-driving cars to stop at intersections, leading to service suspension and highlighting potential system flaws in handling non-functional traffic lights.
Source: Engadget
Several of Waymo's autonomous vehicles were seen stuck in the middle of San Francisco streets following a significant power outage that took out the city's traffic lights. Waymo responded to the power outage by suspending its ride-hailing services in the city, but images and videos on social media showed the self-driving taxis stopped at intersections with hazard lights on. Waymo hasn't provided an explanation as to why the power outage left its autonomous cars stranded, but this episode may have revealed a notable fault with the Waymo Driver system. Waymo indicates on its website that its autonomous driving system "responds to signs and signals, like traffic light colors and temporary stop signs," which could indicate that the self-driving cars struggled with the out-of-order street lights. Full Story