Power mostly restored after more than 130,000 customers in San Francisco hit with outage

Some of Waymo's driverless vehicles were spotted stuck in the middle of the road due to not being able to read traffic lights due to the outage, according to several reports

Published: December 21, 2025 8:20am

Updated: December 21, 2025 7:30pm

A major power outage struck San Francisco on Saturday which left roughly 130,000 Pacific Gas & Electric Co. (PG&E) customers — about one-third of the city — without electricity during one of the busiest days of the holiday shopping season. 

Power has mostly been restored as of 10pm pacific time. 

The outage, which began around 9:40 a.m. local time, cut electricity to neighborhoods including the Richmond, Sunset, Presidio, Golden Gate Park, Inner and Outer Sunset, and parts of downtown San Francisco. 

Fire officials reported that a fire at a utility substation near 8th and Mission Streets contributed to the blackouts. 

Fire crews were able to extinguish the fire and help stabilize the local grid.  

Waymo grounded its fleet of autonomous vehicles due to the outage.

Some of Waymo's driverless vehicles were spotted stuck in the middle of the road due to not being able to read traffic lights due to the outage, according to several reports.

 

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