San Francisco was thrown into complete darkness on Saturday night after a major power outage knocked out electricity across nearly 30 percent of the city, bringing essential services, including self-driving vehicles, to a halt. City officials said more than 130,000 homes and businesses lost power, primarily in the city's northwest neighborhoods such as Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, and areas around Golden Gate Park.
By early Sunday morning, electricity had still not been restored for over 29,000 residents, according to PowerOutageUS. The widespread outages prompted Waymo to immediately suspend its driverless car service, leaving several autonomous vehicles stalled in the middle of city streets with no options available, according to SF Gate.
Clueless in San Francisco
"We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco," a Waymo spokesperson told the outlet. "We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work."
Waymo suspended its service around 8 p.m., as the autonomous vehicles could not safely operate without functioning traffic signals. Residents shared videos showing the cars pulled over with their hazard lights flashing.
At least four Waymo vehicles were seen stopped in the middle of a busy North Beach intersection, hazards on, causing significant traffic backups, according to footage posted on X. In one case, a passenger was left stranded inside a self-driving car during the blackout, the outlet reported.
Part of the outage was attributed to a fire that erupted Saturday afternoon at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation near 8th and Mission streets in downtown San Francisco. Firefighters responded quickly and used carbon dioxide to bring the blaze under control.
Power disruptions were reported as early as 9:40 a.m., with PG&E acknowledging the outages and deploying crews to restore service. Electricity was returned to roughly 90,000 customers shortly after 10 p.m. local time, Mayor Daniel Lurie said on X. Crews continued working Sunday to restore power to the remaining affected customers.
"For those of you that do not have power, we want you to make sure you stay safe," Lurie said.
Safe to Stay Indoors
The 48-year-old Democrat urged residents to look out for one another and reminded people to extinguish any candles they may have been using before turning in for the night. "I know there's a lot going on out there, but people really stepped up tonight and will overnight as well," Lurie said.
Meanwhile, frustrated residents voiced their anger over the hours-long power outages, with some blaming city leaders and criticizing what they see as progressive policies taking precedence over much-needed infrastructure upgrades.
"Sitting here in the dark for hours with zero cellular service (I'm in my car) but at least SF has a reparations fund now!" one person wrote on X.
"This is a disgrace. Most expensive electric rates in the USA and we can't get the grid fixed," another said.
"We've been without power for 12+ hours, but it finally came on at 12:30 AM Sunday morning. It's grossily unacceptable not to have reliable power in San Francisco. PG&E needs to strengthen SF's power grid and make it redundant to prevent blackouts," another wrote.
Police patrols were beefed up in neighborhoods still without electricity to "ensure the safety of those who remain on the roads," the mayor added.
PG&E said the power grid has since been stabilized and that no additional customers are expected to lose service.
The outage also forced rail lines and traffic signals to shut down, prompting city officials to urge residents to avoid traveling for the rest of the night.
