A group of young men riding in a driverless Waymo outside Raymond James Stadium got more than they bargained for Sunday when their robotaxi turned north onto North Himes Avenue, straight into a wall of oncoming post-game traffic. The passengers abandoned the vehicle out of concern for their safety as it got stuck and blocked a lane, according to video of the incident.
The episode unfolded on October 4, 2026, after a Buccaneers game let out at Raymond James Stadium, as reported by WFLA. All lanes on North Himes Avenue had been redirected for southbound-only traffic to help clear the stadium’s parking lots, but the driverless Waymo headed north as if it were a normal travel route, appearing unaware that the street had been flipped. A video of the incident’s exterior view was sent to the station by Michael Ripatranzone, while a separate clip was uploaded to TikTok by Matt Reardon, per WFLA.
Inside the car, the panic was audible. “I thought we were done for a second there,” one passenger said, while another shouted, “Guys, like, I’m outta here!” before leaving the vehicle. A third passenger summed up the group’s frustration more bluntly: “Your driver sucks!”
A Predictable Collision With Game-Day Logistics
The wrong-way move points to a specific blind spot in how autonomous vehicles read the road. Raymond James Stadium seats over 60,000 spectators and relies on temporary contraflow lanes directed by police officers and message boards to clear traffic after games, according to the Tampa Bay Buccaneers. Those post-game procedures systematically convert North Himes Avenue to southbound-only traffic specifically to clear stadium parking lots — a temporary, human-directed change that static digital maps are not built to anticipate…