On a recent night in downtown Nashville, a Metro police officer turned robotaxi chauffeur after a Waymo car froze in the middle of Broadway and refused to budge.
Body-camera footage shows the officer climbing into the empty Waymo, putting the autonomous ride into gear, and steering it through a crowded cross street so traffic could finally squeeze past. The brief stunt cleared a growing backup and added one more entry to the early catalog of videos showing how fully driverless cars are handling downtown streets.
The clip was obtained and reported by Storyful, which says the body-camera video, shot by Stephanie Bartenope, shows the Waymo stuck near Broadway and 4th Avenue North on April 10. Bartenope told Storyful the car "didn't know what to do" as officers tried to move it. The scene lines up with other social media posts of Waymo vehicles pausing in intersections or hesitating around construction zones.
Waymo's Nashville launch and downtown snarls
Waymo opened its Nashville service to public riders on April 7, rolling out a roughly 60-square-mile operating zone that includes Broadway, according to the company’s blog. Since then, local outlets and residents have shared videos of the cars stopping in intersections, attempting restricted turns, or creeping around street crews, a pattern WSMV has documented.
Waymo has said that those sometimes awkward pauses are part of a safety-first approach backed by its internal data, even if the cautious behavior is already testing the patience of downtown drivers and tourists.
City response and complaint portal
Metro has set up a hubNashville portal specifically for reports about autonomous vehicles, and local coverage notes the complaints are already piling up. WKRN reported that Metro logged about 33 complaints in the past month, with several tied to incidents in the downtown corridor.
City agencies, Waymo, and the Metro Nashville Police Department say they are coordinating on how to handle the rollout and have been running orientations and briefings for first responders, according to local reporting and the city portal (hubNashville). Officials say the complaint hub should help them pinpoint problem blocks and fine-tune training.
What to watch next
The body-camera episode on Broadway is an early real-world test of how officers, a live robotaxi fleet, and a packed entertainment district fit together on the same streets. Waymo says it will keep updating its software, training its systems, and coordinating with city officials as it expands into new neighborhoods.
Nashville leaders, downtown businesses, tourists, and transportation planners will be watching closely to see whether those software tweaks and responder trainings translate into fewer stalled cars and fewer officers drafted into emergency robotaxi duty.
