Waymo is officially live in Nashville. Who pays the fine if a driverless vehicle commits a traffic violation?
This has very quickly become a relevant question in the Music City.
The autonomous driving service went live in Tennessee last week. The Waymo cars are going the wrong way.
Waymo is live in Nashville!
If you are not already familiar, Waymo is an autonomous driving technology company owned by Google and Alphabet Inc. The public commercial robotaxi service provides approximately 50,000 paid rides per week in approximately 3,000 vehicles across 10 cities in the United States…
… all without a driver.
Nashville is the latest city to get access to Waymo. It welcomed the first public riders into the self-operating ride-hailing service on April 7, 2026 and currently covers a 60-square-mile radius. Rides to/from the airport are coming soon.
These cars have already been in town for a few months to learn the roads and had a driver behind the wheel at first. They later transitioned to empty vehicles driving on their own.
Now they are available to anybody who wants to book a ride and you can do so at your own risk! The first week of Waymo in Nashville was chaotic.
Driverless vehicles blocked intersections.
Some could not figure out where on the road to stop.
Others could not understand the unusual traffic patterns, which led to a blockage.
Construction zones presented a similar challenge.
One vehicle took a left turn in front of the Ryman Auditorium onto a one-way street that was closed to traffic at the time.
Another took a lengthy, obstructive U-turn after it already drove past the one-way street above.
This vehicle decided to make a U-turn right into oncoming traffic:
Most of the mayhem took place down by Lower Broadway.
Not even the computer could handle the craziness.
The Metro Nashville Police Department is taught how to work with the cars if something does go wrong.
Officers had to step in on at least one occasion over the weekend. They were able to disengage the autonomous vehicle and move the car to a nearby parking lot to later continue autonomous service.
Of course, this is not the only city where this happened. A passenger in Phoenix had to bail after his car started driving onto busy train tracks and here are seven additional examples of a Waymo that drove the wrong way into traffic.
Who pays the traffic ticket?
Although autonomous vehicles like Waymo may actually be safer than a human-operated vehicle in some ways, their inability to adapt to real-time driving situations is a glaring issue. Especially in a new city.
The Metro Nashville Police Department has established points of contact with Alphabet Inc. if an officer becomes aware of a Waymo vehicle that disobeys the rules of the road. “If” is the key word.
Waymo has a mind of its own, literally. There is no telling which why it is going to turn or when!
Fortunately, you would not be on the hook for a traffic ticket. Some state laws indirectly make it so that a traffic ticket can only be issued to an actual driver. It depends on how they are interpreted by the courts.
If a traffic ticket is allowed to be issued to a driverless vehicle, any potential fines fall on the person and/or company to which the license plate is registered. The ticket will be sent to the party who registered the vehicle with the state. I don’t know who that is exactly, but it is not you! Probably Alphabet.
You can ride in a Waymo in Nashville without fear of a traffic ticket but not without fear of turning the wrong way on a one-way straight, driving into oncoming traffic or getting stuck at an intersection!