Waymo, the self-driving car startup owned by Google parent Alphabet (GOOGL), said late on Tuesday that it plans to update its software across the fleet, and update its emergency response protocol, after widespread blackout in the San Francisco Bay Area impacted several of its vehicles over the weekend.
The disturbance caused by the blackout led Waymo to temporarily halt its service in San Francisco.
Waymo said that as part of fleet-wide updates, it is integrating more information about outages to give its vehicles even more context for them to navigate more decisively. The company said it also plans to improve its emergency response protocols.
Waymo also plans to expand its first responder engagement, having trained more than 25,000 first responders in the U.S. and around the world on how to interact with its vehicles.
San Francisco’s widespread power outage over the weekend left several of Waymo’s autonomous vehicles immobilized, snarling traffic across parts of the city.
Videos shared on social media showed Waymo vehicles stopped in traffic lanes or blocking intersections, worsening congestion at a time when power failures had already disabled traffic lights. Drivers reported significant delays as stalled robotaxis added to the gridlock.