AIFoPa-2026-0040
Date of Record: 12 Oct 2026
3 min read
It Briefly Entered a Temporary One-Way Street
On 4 October 2026 a driverless Waymo leaving a Buccaneers game in Tampa turned north onto an avenue whose every lane had been pointed south.
Raymond James Stadium is the home ground of the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. It seats more than 60,000 people. The Buccaneers publish exit instructions for every car park. Lots B, C, 6 and 8 leave onto Himes Avenue southbound. Fans are asked to follow the police officers and the electronic message boards. The plan may be altered on the day.
On Sunday 4 October 2026 the Buccaneers played the Green Bay Packers at home. A group of University of Tampa students called a Waymo after the game. Waymo is a driverless taxi company. It opened its Tampa service to the public on 1 September 2026. The car arrived with nobody in the driving seat. That is the product.
By then every lane of North Himes Avenue ran south, to empty the stadium car parks. Traffic engineers call this a contraflow. The car waited about ten minutes to make its turn. It turned the wheel left. Then it turned right, through some cones, and into the oncoming traffic.
The car drove north as if the avenue were a normal route. One passenger said, “Guys, like, I’m outta here!” WFLA is a Tampa television station. Another passenger told it, “My heart rate was going crazy in my chest.” The car did not appear to know that anything had changed. The passengers did.
Waymo cars have a “pull over” option for passengers. The passengers used it. They got out and left the car where it stood. It stayed in the lane, blocking traffic. One passenger said it was “in the way of everything.” A video of the ride has been viewed more than 400,000 times on TikTok.
Waymo gave WFLA a statement. “The trust and safety of the communities we operate in is of paramount importance,” a spokesperson said. “In Tampa this week, a Waymo vehicle briefly entered a temporary one-way street before correcting the issue. We are looking into this event so we can learn more and improve.” The statement does not say how long briefly was.
Waymo cars have driven in Tampa with safety drivers since December 2025 and without them since 1 September 2026. In July a Tesla Robotaxi was filmed going the wrong way in Tampa, one day after that service launched. Its road is one-way all the time. Himes Avenue is one-way only while the stadium empties.
Waymo says its cars had driven more than 271 million miles without anyone in the driving seat by June 2026. The federal road-safety regulator widened its reviews of the company this year. Its cars had entered flooded roads, missed construction closures and passed stopped school buses. The flooded roads are already on file here. The file is AIFoPa-2026-0019. The Bureau has opened another.