A new self-driving transportation service will be available in Austin early next year, Uber and Waymo announced in a partnership on Sept. 13.
Waymo One, which already operates in San Francisco, Phoenix and Los Angeles, will be accessible to riders from the Uber app 24/7 with pricing similar to Uber and Lyft, said Chris Bonelli, Waymo’s product communications manager.
The vehicles, which are all Jaguar I-PACE models, are fully electric, Bonelli said. When the service begins in Austin, Uber will handle car cleanings and repairs while Waymo will be responsible for roadside assistance, according to the press release. Over time, Waymo plans to have hundreds of vehicles in the Austin market, Bonelli said.
Now, the company is focused on building trust in the community because of the hesitancy with self-driving cars, Bonelli said. The last fully autonomous ride service discontinued services in Austin in 2023 after a federal investigation into public safety concerns. In upcoming weeks, Bonelli said Waymo will allow a limited number of early riders into the Waymo One app to experience the service for free.
Based on information gathered from rides in the other three cities, Waymo One’s rider demographic trends are on the younger side, Bonelli said. He said Waymo has seen a “fantastic response” from students at Arizona State University, where the service is already available, and anticipates similar usage from UT students.
Parth Patki, an electrical and computer engineering junior, said the accessibility of the service makes him more likely to use it.
“My concerns over safety is just going to be me waiting it out and seeing how they do perform, … how they interact with pedestrians and cars, and then from there, I’d make a more informed decision,” Patki said.
Adithya Ramanathan, an electrical and computer engineering junior, said he is similarly skeptical of how the cars will handle Austin’s landscape and thinks self-driving cars have room for improvement. He said students are more receptive to change than older generations and would likely try the service.
“A driverless option would be alluring to people who maybe don’t feel safe taking something like an Uber or Lyft, but there’s also the other side to that, in that some people like to converse a lot with drivers,” Ramanathan said. “They maybe trust humans more than they trust robots … I can see both sides to it.”
Bonelli said Waymo has driven over 22 million miles autonomously over the past few years since the company began testing fully autonomous vehicles.
“We want to be a service for a lot of Austinites,” Bonelli said.
