Waymo temporarily stopped its self-driving taxi service in San Francisco on July 18, 2026, because a power outage affected about 7,000 PG&E customers across the city TechCrunch.

The company told customers through its app that service was "temporarily paused" and that "freeway routes are unavailable," according to a screenshot shared on social media. A Waymo spokesperson told TechCrunch the company was making "temporary adjustments" while watching local conditions and would return to normal operations as soon as possible TechCrunch.

The decision to pull vehicles off the road before things got bad is different from how Waymo handled two earlier incidents in San Francisco. In December 2025, Waymo's driverless taxis stalled on city streets during a pre-Christmas blackout, tying up traffic and leading to a city meeting about the company's emergency response. Reuters reported at the time that the outage raised doubts about whether self-driving taxis are ready to handle crises Reuters. A San Francisco city meeting later addressed Waymo's behavior during that December outage, as covered by TechCrunch in March 2026 TechCrunch.

Then, on the Fourth of July, Waymo taxis stalled during a Golden Gate Bridge fireworks show, paralyzing traffic. That incident added to the pressure on the company and on regulators. San Francisco Mayor Daniel Lurie has called for tougher state rules to address how self-driving vehicles operate during major incidents, whether planned or not TechCrunch.

The freeway route suspension matters because Waymo had only recently started offering rides on California freeways, letting passengers travel about 45 miles from near San Francisco City Hall to San Jose's airport via U.S. 101 AP News. Losing that route during a power outage affects a connection between two major Bay Area destinations and is one of the service's main selling points.

Waymo's situation in San Francisco has gotten more complicated in other ways, too. In January 2026, Lyft and Uber drivers staged a protest against Waymo's self-driving taxis in California AP News. The company also plans to launch a self-driving ride-hailing service in Washington, D.C. in 2026 Reuters, which would expand its operations beyond its current markets.

The broader question is whether stopping service before problems arise, when the outage affected a relatively small number of customers, is a sign of a company that has learned from past mistakes or an overreaction that leaves people without rides at the very moment they might need them most. In December 2025, the vehicles stayed on the road and stalled in traffic. This week, Waymo kept them off the road entirely, which avoids the stalling problem but means no one gets a ride. Whether that tradeoff is the right call depends on how widespread and long-lasting the outage turns out to be, and neither is clear yet.

Mayor Lurie's call for state-level regulation adds a political layer. California's rules for self-driving vehicles run through the Department of Motor Vehicles and the Public Utilities Commission, and local officials have limited direct control over operations. A mayor asking for tougher state rules signals that city officials are running out of patience with these disruptions, especially when they keep happening as they have over the past eight months.

There is also a practical link between the power grid and self-driving taxis that is worth understanding. Waymo's vehicles are electric and charge at facilities that depend on local power. A longer outage affecting a charging depot could limit how many taxis are available well beyond the outage area itself, though this particular incident seems small enough that the pause was likely a safety decision rather than a charging problem.

What we do not know from public information is whether Waymo's taxis can drive themselves back to a depot when something like this happens, or whether the company needs staff to remotely guide them out of affected areas. The December 2025 stalling incidents suggest the remote approach has limits, and this week's preemptive pause may be the lesson from that failure, applied cautiously.