More Than 130,000 Struck By Power Outage In Major US City

Nearly 30% of San Francisco was struck by a power outage resulting in several areas being left in the dark and numerous self-driving cars stalled, the New York Post reports.

More than 130,000 homes were affected by the outages, which were mostly reported in the northwest region of the city, including the Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, and Golden Gate Park sections, officials confirmed Saturday (December 20) night. More than 20,000 homes were reported to still be without power as of 5:15 a.m. local time on Sunday (December 21), according to PowerOutage.us.

The driverless Waymo car service's vehicles were stranded in the streets during the outages, with the company announcing a temporary suspension in the city beginning at around 8:00 p.m. local time, a spokesperson confirmed via SFGate.com.

“We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services given the broad power outage in San Francisco,” the spokesperson said. “We are focused on keeping our riders safe and ensuring emergency personnel have the clear access they need to do their work.”

The Waymo vehicles were unable to operate without traffic signals and were parked with hazards flashing during the outage. A video shared online showed at least four Waymo vehicles parked in the middle of an intersection with hazard lights flashing, resulting in a traffic jam in the North Beach neighborhood.

One passenger was seen stranded inside a driverless vehicle when the outage took place in an Instagram video shared by SFGate. A portion of the outages was believed to have been caused by a fire that broke out at a Pacific Gas and Electric substation at 9th and Mission streets in the downtown area Saturday afternoon, which was contained by responding crews with carbon dioxide.

The outages were initially reported as early as 9:40 a.m. local time and approximately 90,000 customers had their power restored shortly after 10:00 p.m., according to Mayor Daniel Lurie.