By Stephanie Barry
While many Vanderbilt Law students were gone for the summer, new technology took root in Nashville.[1] On June 25, 2026, Waymo officially became fully operational and open to the general public in the city.[2] Waymo is a ride-hailing service, similar to Uber and Lyft, but instead of a human driver, customers can order a self-driving car to take them to their destination. As of September 1, 2026, Nashville is one of fourteen cities where anyone can order a ride in a fully autonomous vehicle.[3]
According to a study by the insurance Institute for Highway Safety, Waymo vehicles are involved in 68% fewer overall crashes per vehicle mile compared to human drivers.[4] However, the new technology has not come without difficulties. Classmates have reported seeing Waymos driving the wrong way down one-way streets or being steered and trapped into alleyways near Broadway that are not public navigable roads. In Arizona, a Waymo was spotted driving the wrong way into oncoming traffic, and in another incident, a man stopped at a red light was rear-ended and knocked into the middle of an intersection by a Waymo.[5]
On February 16, 2025, Jenifer Hanki was biking in San Francisco when a Waymo parked in a tow-away zone adjacent to her bike lane.[6] As she rode past, a passenger opened the car’s rear door directly into her path, and Haniki collided with it.[7] Simultaneously, a second Waymo pulled into the bike lane, and Jennifer was thrown from her bicycle and into the front passenger side of the second car.[8] In June 2025, she sued Waymo in the Superior Court of the State of California for intentional battery, intentional infliction of emotional distress, general negligence, and strict products liability.[9] Litigation is still ongoing.
Although Hanki names both Waymo and its parent company, Alphabet Inc., as defendants to her suit, few lawsuits or legislative frameworks yet resolve who can be held liable for injuries an autonomous vehicle causes.[10] Liability is likely somewhat dependent on the kind of accident—whether that’s a car crash, a collision with a pedestrian or cyclist, or a scenario where other vehicles collide while trying to avoid a confused Waymo. In cases like Haniki’s, where a system failure or programming flaw contributes to the accident (such as causing a Waymo to park somewhere it shouldn’t, like a bike lane), Waymo—as the developer of the technology behind the faulty decision—is likely the correct party to hold responsible.[11] However, Waymo contracts with car companies such as Jaguars or Chrysler and outfits their cars with their technology. So, if the components of those cars mechanically failed unrelated to its self-driving technology, the vehicle manufacturers could share liability.[12] Even if the accident was due to a faulty sensor, camera, or onboard computer, any third party manufacturer that produced those items and provided them to Waymo could be partly liable.[13] Waymo even hires maintenance contractors who calibrate, clean, and repair their vehicles, and if one of them failed to properly secure a sensor or ignored a hardware malfunction before clearing the car to resume operations, they could also be brought into a lawsuit.[14] Finally, passengers themselves could be held liable if they fail to follow guidelines or interfere with the vehicle’s operation.[15] In Haniki’s suit, Waymo may argue that the passenger who opened the door was at fault, rather than their technology, for failing to look at oncoming traffic before opening their door.
Proving liability becomes even harder when there’s no human decision-making to examine. Unlike a standard crash where lawyers can rely on eyewitness statements and police reports, lawyers must gain access to information that is highly technical and often solely controlled by the defendant.[16] For example, Waymos are fitted with “Onboard Event Data Recorders,” similar to an airplane’s black box, which record vehicle speed, braking status, steering input, and system diagnostics leading up to a crash.[17] The cars also continuously capture video and radar footage of their surroundings, offering a record of what the vehicle “saw,” and retain code and system logs that can reveal whether a software bug or a flawed update caused the malfunction.[18] Obtaining this kind of evidence, and hiring someone with expertise in order to review it will be much more expensive for Waymo litigants than those involved in human car accident lawsuits, and will lead to higher rates of settlements as a result as plaintiffs and defendants try to avoid the cost of a prolonged discovery fight.
Stephanie Barry is a 2L at Vanderbilt Law School originally from Fairfield, Connecticut. She graduated from Boston College in 2023 with degrees in English and Psychology, and a minor in Management for Social Impact and the Public Good. After law school she plans to work in D.C., pursuing a career in criminal defense litigation.
[1] The Waymo Team, Waypoint: the official Waymo Blog, Waymo (June 25, 2026), https://waymo.com/blog/shorts/nashville-june2026/.
[2] Id.
[3] The Waymo Team, Welcoming Our First Riders in Denver, San Diego, and Tampa, Waypoint: the official Waymo Blog, Waymo (Sept. 1, 2026), https://waymo.com/blog/2026/09/ride-in-denver-san-diego-tampa/.
[4] Eric R. Teoh, David G. Kidd, & Luke Riexinger, Rise of the Machines: Crash Experiences of Highly Automated Vehicles and Human Drivers (July 2026), https://www.iihs.org/research-areas/bibliography/ref/2374.
[5] Sarah Robinson, Arizona Women Catch Confused Waymo Driverless Car Heading Into Oncoming Traffic (Aug. 27, 2024), https://www.azfamily.com/2024/08/27/arizona-women-catch-confused-driverless-car-heading-into-oncoming-traffic; Derek Staahl, What Happens When a Waymo is at Fault in a Crash? (May 1, 2025), https://www.azfamily.com/2025/05/01/what-happens-when-waymo-is-fault-crash/.
[6] Complaint at ¶ 12, Hanki v. Waymo LLC, No. CGC-25-626060 (Cal. Super. Ct. S.F. Cnty. June 6, 2025).
[7] Id. at ¶ 14.
[8] Id. ¶ 15.
[9] See id.
[10] See id.
[11] See Waymo Accident Statistics (2021-2025), Waymo Crash Data, https://www.damfirm.com/waymo-accident-statistics.html.
[12] Id.
[13] Id.
[14] Joe Lopez Law, Who is Liable If a Waymo Autonomous Vehicle Causes an Accident in Austin?, https://www.joelopezlaw.com/who-is-liable-if-a-waymo-autonomous-vehicle-causes-an-accident-in-austin/.
[15] Waymo Accident Statistics (2021-2025), supra note 11.
[16] Joe Lopez Law, supra note 14.
[17] Id.
[18] Id.