Waymo paused its autonomous robotaxi operations in San Francisco during a Saturday night power outage that impacted numerous residents. A fire at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation left around one-third of the city without electricity for several hours, as reported by The San Francisco Standard. During the blackout, Waymo vehicles were observed obstructing intersections and creating traffic complications. Waymo confirmed the suspension of its service due to the power disruptions, according to Mission Local.

Residents of San Francisco shared images and videos on social media, but some tweets are presently inaccessible.

Waymo did not communicate to Mashable the scale of the fleet affected or the reason why the vehicles ceased operations during the blackout. Suzanne Philion, a spokesperson for Waymo, mentioned via email that services were momentarily halted in the San Francisco Bay Area because of the outage, and the company is collaborating with city officials to reinstate operations shortly.

Power restoration commenced around 9:10 p.m., but some outages continued into Sunday morning, as indicated on PG&E’s map.

This occurrence is the latest in a series of recent challenges faced by Waymo. A viral clip showed a Waymo vehicle entering oncoming traffic, a woman in Los Angeles discovered an unfamiliar person in her Waymo’s trunk, and Waymo issued a software recall following reports of vehicles unlawfully overtaking school buses in Austin.

In November, Waymo encountered backlash in San Francisco after one of its autonomous cars struck a well-known neighborhood cat.