Musk Throws Shade as Waymo Stalls During San Francisco Blackout

With input from FOX Business, the New York Times, USA Today.

Elon Musk couldn’t resist.

As a massive power outage plunged parts of San Francisco into darkness over the weekend — and left dozens of Waymo’s driverless cars frozen at dead intersections — the Tesla CEO jumped online to take a very public jab at his autonomous-driving rival.

“Tesla Robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage,” Musk posted on X, resharing videos that showed Waymo vehicles stopped at intersections with dark traffic lights, horns blaring behind them.

He followed that up by reposting a clip that appeared to show a Tesla navigating the same kind of intersection without issue.

The blackout itself was no small hiccup. A fire inside a Pacific Gas and Electric substation near 8th and Mission streets knocked out power to about 130,000 homes and businesses across San Francisco. Traffic lights went dark, transit was disrupted — and Waymo’s autonomous fleet suddenly became part of the problem.

Waymo temporarily shut down its ride-hailing service in the Bay Area on Saturday evening after city officials flagged that its cars were contributing to gridlock. Social media quickly filled with clips of Waymos sitting motionless in intersections, hazard lights blinking, while frustrated drivers tried to squeeze around them. Some tow truck operators said they were hauling stalled Waymos for hours overnight.

Musk’s posts landed squarely in that moment, framing the outage as a real-world stress test that Tesla passed and Waymo didn’t.

Waymo pushed back on that narrative — carefully.

In a statement, a company spokesperson said the outage caused “widespread gridlock” across San Francisco and emphasized that Waymo’s technology is designed to treat non-functioning traffic signals as four-way stops. But the sheer scale of the blackout, the company said, meant some vehicles paused longer than usual to confirm intersection conditions, adding to congestion.

“No injuries or accidents were reported,” city officials said, and Waymo stressed it resumed service Sunday afternoon after pausing operations out of caution.

Still, the episode raised eyebrows — especially among experts who say autonomous vehicles are supposed to handle exactly these kinds of scenarios.

“These systems are designed to work even with communication dropouts,” said Matthew Wansley, a law professor who specializes in autonomous vehicle policy. “They’re not supposed to rely on immediate network access.”

That has led to speculation that the issue wasn’t just dark traffic lights, but Waymo’s reliance on remote human assistance — technicians who can step in when cars get confused. If those systems were overwhelmed or partially offline during the blackout, that could explain why vehicles chose the safest option: stop and wait.

For some San Franciscans, that caution was reassuring. Eric Black, who encountered multiple stalled Waymos while driving across the city, said he’d rather see them freeze than gamble through a dangerous intersection.

“I’ve seen way more near misses from human drivers,” he said.

Others were less forgiving. David Solnit, who watched Waymos block intersections in North Beach for nearly two hours, said the scene made him worry about emergencies like earthquakes or wildfires — when blocked streets could delay first responders.

“They’re a disaster,” he said bluntly.

Beyond the traffic headaches, the moment also highlights a deeper rivalry. Waymo, owned by Alphabet, has built its reputation on safety-first autonomy, backed by peer-reviewed research showing fewer crashes than human drivers. Tesla, led by Elon Musk, takes a more aggressive, camera-based approach — and never misses a chance to frame setbacks by competitors as proof its own strategy is superior.

Tesla’s limited robotaxi service in San Francisco still operates with a human safety monitor onboard, a detail Musk didn’t mention in his post.

By late Sunday, power was slowly coming back — roughly 110,000 customers had electricity restored, with tens of thousands still waiting. Waymo service flickered back online as well, though riders initially saw a familiar message in the app:

“Our service is currently paused.”

By the end of the day, San Francisco’s streets were mostly back to normal — except for one thing.

The Waymos were gone, at least temporarily. And Musk had already gotten his punchline out.