Autonomously Navigating the Real World: Lessons from the PG&E Outage - CleanTechnica

The article from CleanTechnica details how Waymo’s autonomous driving technology responded during a major PG&E power outage that affected nearly one-third of San Francisco, causing widespread traffic signal failures and severe congestion. During the outage, many traffic lights went dark, forcing law enforcement to manually manage intersections and prompting city officials to advise residents to stay home. Waymo’s autonomous vehicles, which treat dark signals as four-way stops, encountered a surge in confirmation requests to ensure safe navigation, leading to response delays and contributing to traffic congestion. To avoid exacerbating the situation, Waymo temporarily paused its service in the affected area and directed its fleet to park safely, allowing emergency responders to operate more freely. In response to the challenges faced, Waymo is implementing several improvements. These include fleet-wide software updates that provide vehicles with specific outage context to enable more decisive navigation at dark signals, enhanced emergency preparedness protocols developed in coordination with city officials, and expanded training for first responders on interacting with autonomous vehicles. The company emphasizes its