Waymo Madness in SF! Why robotaxis clogged the streets | E2227

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Dec 23, 2025

A power outage in San Francisco caused Waymo robotaxis to gridlock the streets, prompting a lively discussion on their future coordination potential. Exciting predictions emerged about a day when self-driving cars could surpass ballet dancers in elegance. With self-driving tech expanding to London and Coinbase's ambitious acquisitions, the hosts speculated on a potential Google-Uber merger. The conversation also touched on decreasing ride costs and a competitive landscape in the robo-taxi market, as well as insights into Tesla's innovative approach to autonomous vehicles.

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ANECDOTE

Waymo Robotaxis Stalled During SF Outage

Jason witnessed Waymo robotaxis stopping in intersections during a San Francisco power outage and blocking traffic.
He observed multiple Waymos stranded across lanes and predicted engineers will quickly program better fail-safe behaviors.

INSIGHT

Connectivity Revealed As Single Point Of Failure

Jason concluded the outage exposed brittle edge cases in map-based robotic stacks that rely on external connectivity.
He predicted firms will add local redundancy so cars can safely find parking without internet or lights.

ADVICE

Build Offline Fail-Safe Behaviors Now

Program robotic fleets with offline fallbacks that safely navigate to curbside parking when signals fail.
Implement on-device behaviors now so future outages won't produce intersection blockages.

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