The word carrying water here is "need." My partner and I ran an errand in the blackout, we didn't need to do it, but we wanted to. I drove us almost exclusively through an area of the city that had power, but we still ran into issues, including multiple disabled Waymos during that trip. Even in the areas with power, people were driving weirdly. If were able to do it over, I would have stayed home.

So maybe the point was to consider a different store or route.

Or look at the traffic and decide if you REALLY want to spend an hour or more in gridlock for whatever activity you are considering.

And maybe wherever you wanted to go is closed because they don't have power either.

It is a perfectly reasonable request.

The fact that you acknowledge that is was a "crisis" implies pretty strongly that you understand that a priority evaluation might be useful.

I did when I was younger (18-25). Exploring the world outside of my hometown often put me at ease when I was feeling destabilized.

I used to go out in the snow on purpose (DC metro). Mostly have them to myself, it was always fun.

Unsure if sarcasm, but lots of people do that. I do it every day.

Some folks enjoy driving.

I don't understand how these cars keep getting stalled for half an hour or something. Surely there must be a team of teleoperators ready to jump in at any time?

Until AVs can deal with OOD scenarios, they should not be on the road.