When the power goes out, traffic lights stop working. This is inconvenient for human drivers and, as it turns out, a unique headache for autonomous vehicles. Alphabet Inc. (GOOGL) (GOOG) learned this lesson during a recent PG&E Corp (PCG) outage in San Francisco, and now Waymo is doing something about it.

Teaching Robots to Handle Chaos

Waymo released an official statement Tuesday explaining what happened when the lights went dark across San Francisco. "The sheer number of disabled traffic lights were the primary contributors to city-wide gridlock," the company said, noting that authorities ended up urging people to just stay home. For autonomous technology, navigating an outage of that scale presented "a unique challenge."

Here's the fix: "We are now implementing fleet-wide updates that provide the Driver with specific power outage context, allowing it to navigate more decisively," Waymo stated. The company is also enhancing its emergency preparedness protocols and updating training for first responders who might encounter confused robotaxis during the next infrastructure crisis.

Leading the Robotaxi Race

The timing is interesting because Waymo just announced hitting 14 million paid robotaxi rides in 2025. That's not a typo. The company has also reportedly reached 450,000 weekly robotaxi rides, putting it firmly ahead in the U.S. autonomous vehicle competition. For context, Tesla Inc. (TSLA) recently conducted driverless testing operations in Austin, but Waymo is already operating at commercial scale.

And Waymo isn't planning to stay domestic. The company is eyeing an expansion into London next year, working with its fleet operations partner, Moove, to secure local and national regulatory approvals. It won't have the city to itself though. Baidu Inc. (BIDU) is bringing its Apollo Go robotaxis to London in 2026 via partnerships with Uber Technologies Inc. (UBER) and Lyft Inc. (LYFT).

The international expansion suggests Waymo sees opportunity beyond U.S. cities, even as it continues refining how its vehicles handle unexpected situations like widespread power outages. When you're giving 450,000 rides per week, edge cases start showing up pretty regularly.

Price Action: According to market data, GOOGL climbed 0.25% to $315.14 during pre-market trading.