Seeing Google’s self-driving taxi stop in the middle of the road, Elon Musk gloated: “Tesla’s robotaxis are completely unharmed.”
It’s rare for Elon Musk to be so free to criticize his rivals.
A widespread power outage in San Francisco last weekend caught many users by surprise when self-driving taxis suddenly stopped in the middle of the road, trapping passengers inside. Even more surprising, however, was that the Tesla vehicles in the Robotaxis self-driving taxi fleet remained completely unaffected by the incident.
Just waiting for this opportunity, CEO Elon Musk quickly seized the chance to gloat and laugh in the face of his rival.
Earlier on Saturday night, a power outage affected approximately 130,000 homes and businesses, nearly a third of Pacific Gas and Electric’s customers. The cause was determined to be at least partly a fire that broke out inside a substation at 8th and Mission streets. The blackout paralyzed traffic lights across the city, causing significant congestion and disruptions to public transportation.
The traffic lights malfunctioned, causing Waymo’s self-driving taxis to stop as well.
In this chaotic situation, Waymo’s robotaxis – Google’s self-driving taxi service – revealed a fatal flaw. Videos widely shared on social media show Waymo vehicles stopping at intersections with broken traffic lights, not moving, while cars behind them honk incessantly and try to go around them. This situation occurred at numerous intersections, further exacerbating the already chaotic congestion in the city.
Waymo was forced to temporarily suspend all self-driving ride-hailing services in the San Francisco Bay Area Saturday night. According to the company, Waymo Driver technology is designed to handle traffic lights under normal operating conditions – meaning all vehicles must stop and proceed through the intersection one at a time.
However, the large-scale power outage caused numerous traffic lights to stop working. This forced Waymo vehicles to stop longer than usual to check the condition of affected intersections, turning them into fixed obstacles in the middle of the road. Even worse, these vehicles lacked an automatic door-opening mechanism in case of an emergency, thus trapping passengers inside.
Meanwhile, Tesla vehicles using the FSD (Full Self-Driving) system appear to have no problems. Videos shared show Tesla self-driving cars navigating smoothly through intersections with malfunctioning traffic lights, without the delays or hesitation seen in Waymo.
CEO Elon Musk’s gloating post
Elon Musk quickly seized the opportunity to attack his rival. “Tesla Robotaxis was not affected by the SF power outage.” The Tesla CEO’s tweet, posted on social media, included a video showing Waymo vehicles stationary in the middle of the road while Tesla vehicles continued to move normally.
A Waymo spokesperson responded to Fox News Digital Sunday afternoon, confirming the company is resuming ride-hailing services after a temporary suspension. “Saturday’s power outage was a widespread event causing congestion across San Francisco, with malfunctioning traffic lights and transportation disruptions,” the spokesperson said. “While the public infrastructure disruption was significant, we are committed to ensuring our technology adapts to traffic flow during such events.”
Waymo also acknowledged the issue and said it is “focused on quickly integrating lessons learned from this event.” However, this statement is unlikely to allay concerns about the reliability of self-driving technology in real-world emergency situations.
As for Elon Musk, it’s rare for him to have the opportunity to laugh at the misfortune of his rivals like this.
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