KQED's Forum San Francisco Blackouts Raise Concerns about PG&E and Robotaxis
Jan 7, 2026
Joe Eskenazi, managing editor at Mission Local, discusses the recent blackout that left many San Francisco residents in the dark, highlighting the cascading failures of PG&E. Jeffrey Tumlin sheds light on the complications faced by autonomous vehicles like Waymo during emergencies. Brad Templeton offers insights on how AVs can learn from outages and improve their responses. San Francisco Supervisor Bilal Mahmood calls for accountability, seeking hearings on emergency protocols and the reliability of power sources, raising important questions about city safety and future regulations.
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Urban Power System Fragility
- The December 20 blackout and its knock-on outages revealed systemic fragility in San Francisco's electrical infrastructure.
- Joe Eskenazi links a substation fire and long-standing equipment issues to widespread outages and prolonged recovery.
Minimum-Risk Stops Can Harm The System
- Waymo vehicles defaulted to stopping in place as a safety measure during outages, which is collision-averse but causes city-wide side effects.
- Jeffrey Tumlin emphasizes that minimum-risk stopping fails at scale and can obstruct other road users and responders.
Waymos Overloaded Their Remote Operators
- Brad Templeton recounts Waymo vehicles 'phoning home' when humans drove unpredictably during the outage.
- The surge of remote-assist requests overwhelmed Waymo's operators, leaving many cars stalled.
