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Seems like a power outage is a an obvious use case Waymo should have foreseen. Makes me think there are likely other obvious use cases they haven’t thought abo

Seems like a power outage is a an obvious use case Waymo should have foreseen. Makes me think there are likely other obvious use cases they haven’t thought about proactively either.

BlackjackCF 11mo ago
Yeah, I was shocked by this. Blackouts in California aren’t some sort of rare event. I’m primed to expect rolling brownouts/blackouts yearly in the summer.
- duhast2020 11mo ago
  There haven't been rolling blackouts since 2001.
  - Polizeiposaune 11mo ago
    There were significant power shutdowns in California in 2019 (affecting millions of customers in aggregate); the reason for the shutdowns was different from 2001 (preemptive shutdowns when the risk of downed power lines starting wildfires was thought to be high) but the impact on customers is the same: no power for an extended period.
  - andsoitis 11mo ago
    > There haven't been rolling blackouts since 2001. Waymo operates in more places than the Bay Area. Phoenix, AZ, for example, had widespread power outages in Aug 2025 due to Haboob and Monsoon.
JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
> Seems like a power outage is a an obvious use case Waymo should have foreseen We have zero evidence a power outage wasn't foreseen. This looks like a more complex multi-system failure.
- MBCook 11mo ago
  Does it matter? Once you’re on public roads, you need to ALWAYS fail-safe. And that means not blocking the road/intersections when something unexpected happens. If you can physically get out of the way, you need to. Period.
  - JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
    > Does it matter Yes. OP is inferring Waymo's internal processes from this meltdown. ("Makes me think there are likely other obvious use cases they haven’t thought about proactively either.") If Waymo literally didn't foresee a blackout, that's a systemic problem. If, on the other hand, there was some weird power and cellular meltdown that coïncided with something else, that's a fixable edge case.
    - MBCook 11mo ago
      >If Waymo literally didn't foresee a blackout, that's a systemic problem. I agree with this bit > If, on the other hand, there was some weird power and cellular meltdown that coïncided with something else, that's a fixable edge case. This is what I have a problem with. That’s not an edge case. There will always be a weird thing no one programmed for. Remember a few years ago when a semi truck overturned somewhere and poured slimy eels all over the highway? No one‘s ever gonna program for that. It doesn’t matter. There has to be an absolute minimum fail safe that can always work if the car is capable of moving safely. The fact that a human driver couldn’t be reached to press a button to say to execute that is not acceptable. Not having the human available is a totally foreseeable problem. It’s Google. They know networks fail.
      - cgriswald 11mo ago
        This isn't to disagree with your overall point about proper emergency mitigation and having humans available. > Remember a few years ago when a semi truck overturned somewhere and poured slimy eels all over the highway? No one‘s ever gonna program for that. While the cause is unusual, this is really just three things that everyone absolutely should be programming into their autonomous vehicles: accidents, road debris, and slick conditions.
pjc50 11mo ago
It also means that their claims of "autonomy" are fraudulent, like most "self driving" cars. A car which depends on powered infrastructure outside the car to drive is not autonomous.
- bigyabai 11mo ago
  Nearly all humans depend on powered infrastructure outside their car to drive it. You're describing a shortcoming of all 21st century navigation.
  - deleted 11mo ago
    [deleted]
  - basilgohar 11mo ago
    I think the 100 or so miles I can generally drive in my car while it still has gas is different from my car just stopping suddenly because of a power outage.
  - AyyEye 11mo ago
    Tell that to all of the humans who were capable of driving, but blocked by a fake autonomous car that froze in the middle of the road.
  - alistairSH 11mo ago
    Horse manure. If the power goes out, I can still drive. Including navigating intersections. Same for my cell phone.
iamaaditya 11mo ago
One usage case that I saw myself is when a vehicle is parked such that it will require the other vehicle to go slighty over the curb, in this case the curb is flat so I assuming the parked driver thought it was okay. Every other human driver did okay, but Waymo just refused to put its wheel on the curb and just got stuck. Video here: https://x.com/aaditya_prakash/status/1989444130238259575?s=20 https://x.com/aaditya_prakash/status/1989444130238259575?s=2...

Seems like a power outage is a an obvious use case Waymo should have foreseen. Makes me think there are likely other obvious use cases they haven’t thought about proactively either.

BlackjackCF 11mo ago

Yeah, I was shocked by this. Blackouts in California aren’t some sort of rare event. I’m primed to expect rolling brownouts/blackouts yearly in the summer.

duhast2020 11mo ago
There haven't been rolling blackouts since 2001.
- Polizeiposaune 11mo ago
  There were significant power shutdowns in California in 2019 (affecting millions of customers in aggregate); the reason for the shutdowns was different from 2001 (preemptive shutdowns when the risk of downed power lines starting wildfires was thought to be high) but the impact on customers is the same: no power for an extended period.
- andsoitis 11mo ago
  > There haven't been rolling blackouts since 2001. Waymo operates in more places than the Bay Area. Phoenix, AZ, for example, had widespread power outages in Aug 2025 due to Haboob and Monsoon.

JumpCrisscross 11mo ago

> Seems like a power outage is a an obvious use case Waymo should have foreseen We have zero evidence a power outage wasn't foreseen. This looks like a more complex multi-system failure.

MBCook 11mo ago
Does it matter? Once you’re on public roads, you need to ALWAYS fail-safe. And that means not blocking the road/intersections when something unexpected happens. If you can physically get out of the way, you need to. Period.
- JumpCrisscross 11mo ago
  > Does it matter Yes. OP is inferring Waymo's internal processes from this meltdown. ("Makes me think there are likely other obvious use cases they haven’t thought about proactively either.") If Waymo literally didn't foresee a blackout, that's a systemic problem. If, on the other hand, there was some weird power and cellular meltdown that coïncided with something else, that's a fixable edge case.
  - MBCook 11mo ago
    >If Waymo literally didn't foresee a blackout, that's a systemic problem. I agree with this bit > If, on the other hand, there was some weird power and cellular meltdown that coïncided with something else, that's a fixable edge case. This is what I have a problem with. That’s not an edge case. There will always be a weird thing no one programmed for. Remember a few years ago when a semi truck overturned somewhere and poured slimy eels all over the highway? No one‘s ever gonna program for that. It doesn’t matter. There has to be an absolute minimum fail safe that can always work if the car is capable of moving safely. The fact that a human driver couldn’t be reached to press a button to say to execute that is not acceptable. Not having the human available is a totally foreseeable problem. It’s Google. They know networks fail.
    - cgriswald 11mo ago
      This isn't to disagree with your overall point about proper emergency mitigation and having humans available. > Remember a few years ago when a semi truck overturned somewhere and poured slimy eels all over the highway? No one‘s ever gonna program for that. While the cause is unusual, this is really just three things that everyone absolutely should be programming into their autonomous vehicles: accidents, road debris, and slick conditions.

pjc50 11mo ago

It also means that their claims of "autonomy" are fraudulent, like most "self driving" cars. A car which depends on powered infrastructure outside the car to drive is not autonomous.

bigyabai 11mo ago
Nearly all humans depend on powered infrastructure outside their car to drive it. You're describing a shortcoming of all 21st century navigation.
- deleted 11mo ago
  [deleted]
- basilgohar 11mo ago
  I think the 100 or so miles I can generally drive in my car while it still has gas is different from my car just stopping suddenly because of a power outage.
- AyyEye 11mo ago
  Tell that to all of the humans who were capable of driving, but blocked by a fake autonomous car that froze in the middle of the road.
- alistairSH 11mo ago
  Horse manure. If the power goes out, I can still drive. Including navigating intersections. Same for my cell phone.

iamaaditya 11mo ago

One usage case that I saw myself is when a vehicle is parked such that it will require the other vehicle to go slighty over the curb, in this case the curb is flat so I assuming the parked driver thought it was okay. Every other human driver did okay, but Waymo just refused to put its wheel on the curb and just got stuck. Video here: https://x.com/aaditya_prakash/status/1989444130238259575?s=20 https://x.com/aaditya_prakash/status/1989444130238259575?s=2...