The introduction of the game
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Two cars approach each other on a road, traveling in opposite directions. Each driver can choose to stay to the right side of the road (from his own perspective), to stay to the left side of the road, or to proceed straight down the middle. Neither driver has a preference for which part of the street he drives on, but both would strongly prefer to avoid a collision.

The grid below represents the entire game. The options along the left side are the choices that the first driver can make, and the options along the top are the choices that the second driver can make. The box at the intersection of two options represents the payoffs for both players if they choose those options. The first number in each pair represents the payoff for the first driver, and the second number the payoff for the second driver. Successfully passing each other is scored as a 1, while a collision, which would be very bad news for both drivers, is scored as a -10.

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Why driving straight down the middle always lead to collision?
IMO, If one driver stays to the right and the other stays in the middle, they should passing each other as well.

So you made a grid that doesn't make sense and are now complaining that it doesn't make sense? Or am I missing something?

I'm assuming he copied the grid from somewhere.

Well, it appears this is about a very narrow road and if one is driving in the center then the other doesn't have enough space to pass on either side. Remarkably uninteresting game though.

+1

At first I thought it will be at least some kind of a game of chicken situation or a prisoners dilemma, but this seems just pointless...

I found this game in a book called "Play Optimal Poker 1".
It seems that the author did not explain this game clearly

It's just a game theory demonstration. You could replace the words "car" and "street" with literally any other metaphor and the math would be the same.

So replace top and bottom middle values with 1 instead of -10. Presto-chango you've created a game theory chart that represents this idea.

Maybe you have super-wide roads where you live, but I'm used to roads with one lane for one direction, and another lane for the other. Anyone that drove down the middle would naturally crash into oncoming traffic, since half his car would be on the wrong side of the road, leaving not enough room for cars coming towards it.