Blackout

Waymo displays a self-driving Jaguar taxi in October in New York City, N.Y. Three days following a massive San Francisco blackout that disrupted its driverless operations, Waymo said it will upgrade its fleet to better handle future power outages. File Photo by John Angelillo/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 24 (UPI) — Three days following a massive San Francisco blackout that disrupted its driverless operations, Waymo said it will upgrade its fleet to better handle future power outages.

Saturday’s outage, which was sparked by a substation fire that damaged local infrastructure, left about 130,000 customers without power at its peak and 21,000 still offline by Sunday, according to Pacific Gas and Electric.

“We’ve always focused on developing the Waymo Driver for the world as it is, including when infrastructure fails,” the company said Tuesday.

Traffic gridlock followed as lights went dark with videos showing Waymo cars stalled across the city.

“We directed our fleet to pull over and park appropriately so we could return vehicles to our depots in waves,” Waymo wrote. “This ensured we did not further add to the congestion or obstruct emergency vehicles during the peak of the recovery effort.”

The Alphabet-owned company said it will take three immediate steps.

According to Waymo, it will update its vehicles to recognize regional outages, strengthen emergency response protocol and expand training and coordination with local first responders and city officials.

“Backed by 100M+ miles of fully autonomous driving experience and a record of improving road safety, we are undaunted by the opportunity to challenge the status quo of our roads, and we’re proud to continue serving San Franciscan residents and visitors,” Waymo officials continued in Tuesday’s blog.

Waymo operates ride-hailing services in San Francisco, Phoenix, Austin, Atlanta and Los Angeles.

It recently surpassed 450,000 weekly rides and expects to exceed 20 million total trips by year’s end.

“In San Francisco, we’ll continue to coordinate with Mayor [Daniel] Lurie’s team to identify areas of greater collaboration in our existing emergency preparedness plans,” the company stated.

San Francisco’s skyline is dominated by the 1,070-foot Salesforce Tower as viewed from the top of Mount Tamalpias in Marin County, California on February 18, 2019. File Photo by Terry Schmitt/UPI | License Photo

Dec. 21 (UPI) — Power has been largely restored after a widespread and unexplained blackout left swaths of San Francisco without electricity on Saturday, just days before Christmas.

Pacific Gas and Electric said in a statement Saturday afternoon that the blackout was affecting about 130,000 businesses and homes. At the time, the company said it had “stabilized the grid” and did not expect the blackout to further spread.

Late Saturday night, the company said crews restored about 95,000 customers. Of the 35,000 customers still without power Saturday night, another 10,000 have since had their service restored.

“We apologize for the delay in getting your power back on,” Pacific Gas and Electric said in a notice on its outage map around 3:45 p.m. local time Saturday. “Unforeseen issues can cause unexpected delays for our crews.”

Mayor Daniel Lurie said on social media that Muni lines — the diverse network of public transportation including buses, light rail, and historic street cars and cable cars — was affected by the blackout. The outage also affected city street lights, he said.

Because of that, Lurie said the city would increase its police presence overnight. The San Francisco Police Department later posted on social media that officers would be working to keep the city safe.

Meanwhile, emergency management officials urged residents to “stay home if you can, avoid all unnecessary travel, and check on neighbors safely.”

The Bay Area Rapid Transit system also said that it had closed its Powell Street and Civic Center stations downtown, which have since reopened.

The cause of the outage was not immediately clear but a spokesman for the San Francisco Fire Department told The New York Times that a fire at a large Pacific Gas and Electric substation in the South Market neighborhood contributed to the blackout.