- Waymo entered Denver’s South Pearl Farmers Market during Sunday setup.
- Organizers reportedly didn’t know how to stop or redirect the driverless car.
- Nobody was injured, and Waymo says the vehicle safely navigated out.
Autonomous cars are supposed to handle situations human drivers encounter every day, but sometimes they stumble into something altogether stranger. A Waymo in Denver got an unexpected test Sunday morning when it found itself driving straight through a farmers market as vendors were setting up. Nobody was hurt, and nothing was damaged, but there was one fairly significant problem. The humans apparently had no idea how to tell the car to leave.
Video originally shared by local bakery and coffee shop Hearth Denver showed the Waymo slowly making its way between tents at the South Pearl Street Farmers Market. The original post appears to have since disappeared, although copies of the footage remain online. “Waymo babe this is a farmers market,” Hearth captioned the video, which showed the autonomous vehicle signaling and carefully working its way through the increasingly unusual surroundings.
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Farmers Market and Event Coordinator Marilyn Kahlich told local news outlet UCook.org that the Waymo moved slowly, followed the flow of vendors setting up, and avoided obstacles. Nobody was injured, nothing was damaged, and Kahlich said nobody felt endangered. That’s where things get more interesting.
Kahlich said organizers didn’t know how to stop or redirect the Waymo. Instead, they followed it through the market while shouting warnings to people ahead. It’s an odd little wrinkle in the autonomous-car future. There’s no driver whose window you can knock on and politely explain that they’re somewhere they shouldn’t be. This is far from the first time that people have struggled with exactly this type of interaction with AVs.
In similar instances, AVs have driven into active crime scenes, showed up en masse to random streets and cul-de-sacs, or become stuck on public roads. Waymo says the car was already navigating toward a destination on South Pearl Street when market setup began around it. According to the company, the vehicle recognized the changing environment and successfully maneuvered its way out.
In fairness to Waymo, it appears to have handled a thoroughly bizarre situation without hitting anything. Now we just need a more reliable way to communicate with AVs that run into situations like these.
