# Waymo Madness in SF! Why robotaxis clogged the streets | E2227 Source: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_l1oU7OVqDw Recap page: https://rapidrecap.app/video/_l1oU7OVqDw Generated: 2025-12-23T01:33:20.625+00:00 --- ## Quick Overview Waymo robotaxis clogged San Francisco intersections, blocking traffic in multiple lanes after a widespread power outage that began around 1 p.m. on Saturday, demonstrating a critical edge case for autonomous vehicles when traffic lights fail and connectivity may be compromised. **Key Points:** - A power outage in San Francisco around 1 p.m. on Saturday affected about 130,000 customers, causing Waymo self-driving cars to stop in intersections and block traffic. - Multiple Waymos were observed stopped in one intersection across three different lanes, leading to traffic backup and honking, which the hosts deemed a "catastrophe" and not what Waymo promised the world. - The hosts speculated the failure was due to a combination of traffic light loss and potential connectivity issues, noting that remote drivers might not have been able to intervene if connectivity was down. - A competitor noted that "Tesla robotaxis were unaffected by the SF power outage," highlighting a potential difference between Waymo's map-based, heuristics-based system and Tesla's end-to-end models. - Jason Calacanis predicted that connectivity, like Starlink, will become standard in all cars, citing Tesla's recent patent filing for integrating connectivity into every vehicle. - The discussion shifted to the massive wealth creation potential in ride-sharing as prices drop from $2-$3 per mile to $0.50-$1 per mile, predicting that 50% of rides will be done by ride-sharing within 10 to 20 years. - The hosts briefly covered Google acquiring Intersect for $4.75 billion to secure compute power and predicted Google might buy Uber to compete with Tesla's integrated ecosystem. **Context:** The discussion centers on a specific incident in San Francisco where a major power outage on a Saturday caused Waymo autonomous vehicles to become immobilized and block traffic, illustrating real-world limitations of current self-driving technology when infrastructure fails. Hosts Jason Calacanis and Alex Wilhelm analyze this event in the context of the broader competition between autonomous vehicle providers, specifically comparing Waymo's performance against Tesla during the emergency, and then transition to discussing broader industry trends like connectivity integration and the future market size of ride-sharing. ## Detailed Analysis The core event analyzed is the failure of Waymo robotaxis during a San Francisco power outage that rendered traffic lights inoperable for 130,000 customers, resulting in Waymos stopping in intersections and causing significant traffic obstruction across multiple lanes. The hosts view this as a failure to solve critical edge cases, especially since a competing service's vehicles, implied to be Tesla's, were reportedly unaffected. This leads to a comparison of system architectures, suggesting Waymo's map-based approach is more brittle than Tesla's end-to-end models, although Waymo is working on similar E-M-M-A-E models. The conversation then broadens to the necessity of ubiquitous connectivity, with Jason predicting every car will eventually have satellite dishes like Starlink, as connectivity proved vital for remote intervention during the outage. Furthermore, the hosts foresee massive wealth creation in ride-sharing as costs plummet toward $0.50 per mile, potentially displacing significant personal car ownership and leading to hundreds of millions of robo-taxis on the road globally within a decade. Additional news items covered include Google's $4.75 billion acquisition of Intersect for data center power solutions, signaling intense compute demand, and the prediction that Google might acquire Uber to better compete with Tesla's integrated platform. ### Waymo Incident Analysis - Power outage in SF caused Waymos to stop in intersections blocking traffic in three different lanes - Hosts showed clips of the "catastrophe" with cars backed up and horns sounding - Hosts believe this is an edge case Waymo must programmatically solve for future outages. ### Autonomous Vehicle Architecture Debate - Competitor stated Tesla robotaxis were unaffected by the outage, contrasting with Waymo's failure - Waymos operate on map-based/heuristics-based systems, which are accurate short-term but brittle to new situations like connectivity loss. ### Future of Connectivity - Jason predicted every car will eventually have satellite connectivity, referencing a Tesla patent filing for built-in connectivity - This addresses the need for redundancy when 5G networks or local internet infrastructure fails. ### Ride-Sharing Market Forecast - The price per mile is expected to drop from $2-$3 to $0.50-$1, inducing greater consumption of rides - This shift could lead to 50% of all rides being done via ride-sharing, requiring 500 million robo-taxis to be produced over the next decade. ### Tech M&A and Compute Needs - Google acquired Intersect for $4.75 billion to secure power/compute for data centers, indicating compute constraint is real - Jason predicted Google might acquire Uber to leverage its network and compete against Tesla's integrated system. ### AI Model Progress - Analysis showed AI models like Grok, GPT, and Claude improved by roughly 2.5 times in intelligence scores (Artificial Analysis Intelligence Index) over the last year - The next testing frontier will involve novel problem-solving and 'wilderness survival' type agent testing, not just benchmark scoring.