Spend enough time in Downtown Austin and you’re bound to see an autonomous vehicle — aka a vehicle roving around without a human in the driver’s seat.
There are six companies mapping, testing, and driving their AVs on Austin roadways as of December 2024. They’re able to operate on streets statewide due to regulation from Senate Bill 2205, which took effect in 2017.
As one of the country’s biggest tech hubs, it makes sense for AVs to flock here. Here’s your guide to spotting them.
Hit the pavement
Only one AV company is in the deployment phase: Waymo. The driverless taxi service will roll out rides, in partnership with Uber, from electric Jaguar I-PACE vehicles to the public in early 2025. At the moment, Waymo is the most common AV on local roadways.
City Editors Figi + Morgan took a ride in one themselves — read our interview with Waymo Products Communications Manager Chris Bonelli.
The majority of Austin’s AVs are currently in the testing phase:
- ADMT of Volkswagen: using 10 of Volkswagen’s electric ID. Buzz buses, ADMT began testing in Austin in July 2023. The company plans to offer ride services to customers on demand.
- Avride: this company (which is based in Austin) is working to offer both driverless taxis and delivery robots, and announced a partnership with Uber for both services back in October. Avride’s delivery robots are already cruising around town, and robotaxi services could begin as soon as 2025.
- Zoox of Amazon: Amazon’s AV branch announced its expansion to Austin in June 2024, but the company has been working out of San Francisco since 2018. You won’t see its purpose-built robotaxi on roads yet — just white SUVs with a blue and purple gradient design — but it may appear after testing wraps.
Motional, which Hyundai runs, is in the mapping phase, but keep an eye out for its IONIQ 5 taxi in the future. Finally, General Motor’s Cruise fleet proactively suspended its operations in Austin while working to “rebuild public trust” after incidents in San Francisco.
You can learn more about Austin’s AVs on the city’s website, which includes an incident dashboard. Note: incidents submitted to the dashboard are not validated.
There could be more AVs on the way
Those are just the companies currently working in Austin. The following companies currently or will soon operate somewhere in Texas:
- Kodiak
- Aurora
- Waabi
- Torc
- Plus.AI
- Gatik
- Starship
- Kiwibot
- Refraction.AI
- Nuro
- Clevon
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