Waymo self-driving car drives into Denver farmers market, Colorado has no law to issue a ticket

A Waymo autonomous vehicle drove into the Denver South Pearl Street farmers market on the morning of Sunday, September 20, 2026, crossing barricades and a stop sign, and was eventually guided back to the street by market staff. The Denver Police Department and Colorado State Patrol confirmed that current state law has no mechanism to issue tickets to driverless vehicles. This gap traces back to Senate Bill 17-213 from 2017, which allows fully autonomous vehicles to operate in Colorado provided they can comply with state and federal traffic laws, but does not specify how to penalize the vehicle or operating company for violations. A California law that took effect this year allows formal violation notices to be issued directly to companies operating autonomous vehicles, with repeated violations triggering escalating penalties that can restrict the scope, time, or number of operations. George Mason University professor Missy Cummings noted that environmental uncertainty remains a persistent challenge for autonomous driving systems, and that state governments lack knowledgeable policy staff. Waymo responded that it is learning from this incident.