Suzanne Philion

Stories

San Francisco went dark—and the same substation has burned before

Announced temporary suspension of robotaxi service during infrastructure instability

San Francisco is the kind of city that feels unstoppable—until the lights go out. On Saturday, a substation fire near 8th and Mission helped trigger a blackout that spread across neighborhoods and knocked out traffic signals. Restoration took more than two days and sparked political backlash and raised questions about whether a modern city can tolerate single-point failures in critical infrastructure.

Updated May 16

Notable Quotes

"We have temporarily suspended our ride-hailing services... due to the widespread power outage." (Suzanne Philion, Waymo)

from San Francisco went dark—and the same substation has burned before · Updated May 16

"The scale of the outage led to cases where our cars remained stationary for longer than usual... The scale of the outage prompted a spike in confirmation requests to headquarters, which created a backlog that led to delays." (Waymo spokesperson, Dec. 24, 2025)

from San Francisco went dark—and the same substation has burned before · Updated May 16