DENVER — Shoppers cruising through a farmers market to find good deals is not unusual. A driverless Waymo rolling through an open-air market is a different matter.
Vendors setting up for The South Pearl Farmers Market in Denver on Sunday at about 8:15 a.m. MT were startled when a driverless vehicle on South Pearl Street began cruising through the area, between two rows of tents, The Denver Post reported.
“Waymo babe this is a farmers market,” Hearth Denver, a bakery and coffee shop that participates in the market, wrote in a video posted Sunday to social media.
A Waymo was caught on video driving through the South Pearl Farmers Market during set up on Sunday morning.
— Denver7 News (@DenverChannel) September 21, 2026
According to the market organizers, the Waymo entered the market before it was open to the public, and the vehicle drove around the barricades at Washington St. and… pic.twitter.com/QwG7Ay2r1o
“It entered through our food truck area,” Nicole Jarman, the production director of the farmers market, told KDVR.
Jarman said there was a “Road Closed” sign on one side of the street, but the other side remained open for vendor traffic, the television station reported. She added that the Waymo followed a vendor past the sign and barricades before turning onto South Pearl Street.
Farmers market staff members were able to guide the wayward Waymo back onto the street, KUSA reported.
“There was kind of like commotion. People were like, ‘oh my God, there’s a Waymo driving down,”’ Shari Wilkins, assistant manager of the Pearl Street Market, told the television station.
Theodore Subbotin, farmers market manager for Hearth Denver, also saw the Waymo drive through the line of food and flower stalls.
“There is no driver or anyone in the car,” Subbotin told KUSA. “It’s sort of just like, we have to usher it out. Which is hard to do.”
There were no injuries.
A Waymo spokesperson told the Post that the Waymo was already navigating to a destination on South Pearl Street when the farmers market setup began.
“The trust and safety of the community is our top priority,” a company spokesperson told KMGH. We are dedicated to learning from this situation as we continue improving road safety in the cities we serve.”
The incident raises the question: can a Waymo be cited for its wayward actions?
Under Colorado law, the answer is no, KUSA reported.
Both the Denver Police Department and Colorado State Patrol confirmed to the television station that there is currently no legal recourse against a Waymo “driver.”
“If there’s no driver, there currently isn’t a mechanism within state law for issuing a citation,” a Denver police spokesperson told KUSA.
The Colorado State Patrol agreed, adding in a statement that, to its knowledge, no troopers have contacted a Waymo vehicle.
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