San Francisco power outage leaves about 130,000 in the dark as autonomous vehicles stall
PG&E says fire at a substation caused widespread outages; Waymo suspends autonomous ride-hailing as crews work to restore power.
A massive power outage Saturday plunged large swaths of San Francisco into darkness, knocking out electricity to roughly 130,000 homes and businesses and leaving self-driving cars stalled in city streets.
Pacific Gas and Electric Co. did not immediately identify a cause. Fire officials posted on X around 3:15 p.m. that outages were, at least in part, triggered by a fire that broke out inside a PG&E substation at the intersection of 8th Street and Mission Street. The outage darkened large parts of the city’s north side, beginning in the Richmond and Presidio neighborhoods and areas around Golden Gate Park before spreading further.
PG&E said in an update Sunday morning that damage from the fire in its substation was "significant and extensive," and that repairs and restoration would be "complex." The utility noted that it could not provide a precise timeframe for full restoration and would provide additional detail as its assessment and repair efforts continued.
Autonomous vehicles stalled in the middle of streets, reportedly unable to detect down traffic lights, triggering bottlenecks and gridlock in affected areas. The San Francisco Department of Emergency Management said there were "significant transit disruptions" citywide and urged residents to avoid nonessential travel and treat down traffic signals as four-way stops.
Waymo said it temporarily suspended its ride-hailing service in the San Francisco Bay Area in the wake of the blackout. The company told Fox News Digital that teams were working diligently and coordinating with city officials to monitor infrastructure stability and hoped to bring services back online soon.
Crews would continue working through the night to restore power to customers. As of 7:30 a.m. Sunday, PG&E said electricity had been restored to about 110,000 customers, with roughly 21,000 remaining without power, concentrated mainly in the Presidio, Richmond District, Golden Gate Park and small pockets downtown San Francisco.
The outage also disrupted traffic signals and public transit across the city, complicating commutes and emergency response. City officials urged residents to plan for possible delays, to use caution while driving through intersections without working lights, and to check for updates from PG&E and city agencies.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.