DALLAS \u2014 Waymo is expanding its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to Austin freeways, allowing riders to take some driverless trips on major highways across the company\u2019s service area.<\/p>\n
The expansion marks the first time Waymo has offered fully autonomous freeway trips to riders in Texas. The company said Thursday that riders can access the service through the Uber app, with trips available on freeways including MoPac Expressway, Interstate 35, U.S. 183 and U.S. 290.<\/p>\n
Waymo said the rollout follows months of testing with specialists in Austin and freeway rides for company employees. The company said it has driven over 1 million fully autonomous freeway miles with riders in cities including Phoenix, San Francisco, Los Angeles and Miami.<\/p>\n
The expansion is being rolled out gradually. Waymo said riders may initially encounter freeway trips only on select rides, with the company planning to extend the capability to more riders.<\/p>\n
Waymo began offering rides in Austin through Uber in March 2025, initially limiting the autonomous service to surface streets. The company has also expanded operations this year into other Texas metropolitan areas, including Dallas, Houston and San Antonio.\u00a0<\/p>\n
The increasing presence of Waymo vehicles on Texas roads has drawn mixed reactions from some residents, including concerns about the technology\u2019s ability to respond to unexpected situations.<\/p>\n
\u201cFrom what I know, it\u2019s pretty early, the development,\u201d said Dallas resident Jesus Diaz.<\/p>\n
A sentiment shared by another Dallas resident, Alyssa: \u201cNot a fan of the robots.\u201d<\/p>\n
Those concerns have been fueled in part by incidents involving Waymo vehicles in Texas.<\/p>\n
In San Antonio, Waymo vehicles have been reported driving into flooded roads. In Austin, one Waymo vehicle was involved in an incident involving a stopped school bus. In Dallas, a Waymo vehicle blocked a roadway during the response to a fatal apartment gas explosion.<\/p>\n
Waymo said its Austin freeway rollout is following the same phased process it has used in other markets. The company said freeway operations began with human specialist supervision, followed by fully autonomous trips for local employees before being made available to public riders.<\/p>\n
Waymo did not provide a specific timetable for expanding freeway service to additional Texas markets such as Dallas or San Antonio. The company said it is gradually expanding freeway access nationwide as it scales its operations.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"DALLAS \u2014 Waymo is expanding its fully autonomous ride-hailing service to Austin freeways, allowing riders to take some…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":447357,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[132,134,133,1570,102,19797,223,3621,27,1569,835],"class_list":["post-447356","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-austin","tag-austin","tag-austin-headlines","tag-austin-news","tag-ctv","tag-dallas","tag-michael-lozano","tag-news","tag-technology","tag-texas","tag-texas-what-you-need-to-know","tag-vod"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447356","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=447356"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/447356\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/447357"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=447356"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=447356"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=447356"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}