Guide to Cruises Out of Galveston

Table Of Content

• Amazon’s Mother’s Day Shop has all the gifting inspo …
• Latest Texas Tribune events and articles
• Driverless rideshare company operating in Austin now under federal investigation
• More from KXAN Austin
• KXAN Austin Video
• Austin ranks in Uber’s most ‘forgetful’ cities
• KXAN Breaking News Alerts
• State of Texas: CHIPS Act brings billions for Texas …

The California-based autonomous vehicle company is temporarily ramping down all operations of its vehicles on public roads, including vehicles that had human drivers supervising. “It’s important for autonomous vehicle companies to realize that these driverless cars can be dangerous and that our public roads should not be a test playground," Ellis said. "We should not be treated like guinea pigs." Self-driving car company Cruise has halted driverless car operations nationwide, including in Austin, in an effort to rebuild public trust around the technology.

Amazon’s Mother’s Day Shop has all the gifting inspo …

Highlights include kids’ pools, Broadway-caliber musicals, a Marvel Superhero Academy, and a range of eating options. Come ready and raring for Texas-sized Gulf Coast adventure with cruises to Mexico and the Western Caribbean with a Royal Caribbean cruise from Galveston Island. Under a separate state law, passed in 2021, political subdivisions of the state, such as cities, are also forbidden from regulating automated driving systems or automated motor systems. "We've since had some dialog with that company, and they've supposedly fixed it," Austin Fire Battalion Chief Matthew Holmes told a panel of City Council members Friday.

Latest Texas Tribune events and articles

Cruise had provided training to Austin firefighters on how to get inside the Chevy Bolt and drive the vehicle. But a Cruise employee, speaking to an Austin firefighter remotely, refused to grant them permission. The employee said they couldn't verify the uniformed firefighters were actually firefighters and not civilians.

Driverless rideshare company operating in Austin now under federal investigation

The company, which announced the latest change in a blog post Tuesday, said it plans to operate its vehicles in closed-course training environments and simulation programs during the pause. In one incident, a pedestrian was struck by a Cruise vehicle after being hit by a human-driven vehicle in an adjacent lane. Cruise said its vehicle “braked aggressively” to dampen the impact.

More from KXAN Austin

Qadri called both incidents "a mess" and expressed plans to voice his safety concerns at the next mobility council meeting. About 20 Cruise-operated Chevrolet Bolts were seen stuck up and down San Gabriel Street late Saturday night. Some had shifted into the oncoming side of the two-lane street, even forcing a pair of Cruise cars to face one another in some sort of autonomous stand-off, blocking traffic even further.

KXAN Austin Video

Qadri is working with fellow council members to address the issues in the Austin Mobility Committee next month. One of many recent posts that caught the attention of Austin City Council Member Zo Qadri. “From a pedestrian in West Campus, they’re not great to interact with. But I mean, I’m sure at some point, the technology will get there,” said Prada. We fully recognize the inconvenience, and we’ve taken proactive measures to relieve the crowding in the area.

Austin ranks in Uber’s most ‘forgetful’ cities

Earlier this month, the department issued a memo noting that "Texas cities cannot regulate autonomous vehicles" as their authority is preempted by state law. The permit suspension only impacted the company’s ability to operate fully autonomously. Many have claimed there will be less traffic and less driving because fewer people will own cars. Also, if we are not the one having to drive, we can do things like watch live sports or Netflix or whatever and are more willing to accept growing traffic. I have a hard time determining what is better — there are pros and cons to the robotaxis of 2023, and there are pros and cons to the broader vision of a widespread robotaxi revolution. AUSTIN (KXAN) — On a busy Saturday night near the University of Texas at Austin campus, a UT student caught a unique traffic jam on camera — at least 20 Cruise driverless cars at San Gabriel and 23rd streets.

Austinites are complaining about robot cars. The city can't do anything to regulate them. - KUT

Austinites are complaining about robot cars. The city can't do anything to regulate them..

Posted: Thu, 07 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

Dozens of Cruise vehicles stopped in a street in West Campus and blocked traffic. Videos shared on social media show the fully autonomous vehicles lining the street late at night, some with their hazard lights flashing and others trying to maneuver around each other. Some of the vehicles were even positioned on the wrong side of the road.

There’s a bunch of drunk college students out, you know,” said Nico Prada. "At the end of the day, we're not perfect," said Michael Staples, Cruise's General Manager for the Austin region, to KXAN. "There will be situations where the vehicle will experience something where it's uncertain of what to do next. So when it doesn't know what to do, it will default to its safest action, which is pulling over."

Last month, approximately 10 vehicles locked traffic on Vallejo Street in San Francisco. The most famous incident of Cruise vehicles randomly gathered together occurred in July last year when over a dozen prototypes stopped near an intersection, also in San Francisco. On Thursday evening, the company said it was proactively pausing driverless operations across its other locations. Cruise, which has been offering driverless rideshare in Austin since last year, also offers rideshare services in Houston and Phoenix, and previously San Francisco. On the evening of Saturday, Sept. 30, firefighters responded to a Cruise vehicle stopped in the road and blocking traffic. The screen in the vehicle said a crash had occurred, according to an incident report.

Complaints continue to mount as Austin finds itself unable to regulate driverless rideshares - KEYE TV CBS Austin

Complaints continue to mount as Austin finds itself unable to regulate driverless rideshares.

Posted: Tue, 19 Sep 2023 07:00:00 GMT [source]

They acknowledged the inconvenience caused by the congestion and laid out their plans to expand the Operational Design Domain (ODD) to reduce vehicle density in high-demand areas and enhance service quality. The city was also previously being used by Ford and Argo AI to test self-driving technology including rideshare and delivery services, before Argo AI shut down last year. The California-based company, which is a subsidiary of General Motors, announced the change Thursday evening in a post on X, formerly Twitter. The announcement came just two days after the company paused services in California after the California Department of Motor Vehicles suspended the company’s testing and deployment permits. "The industry's going to have to do a lot more diligence to get us to a place where these vehicles can safely operate," said Council Member Zo Qadri, whose downtown district has been a hot spot for Cruise complaints.

Moreover, the dearth of viable north-south routes through the city and an unplanned detour from an alternative route resulted in several robotaxis converging on the same beleaguered thoroughfare. Cruise’s efforts to manually reroute the vehicles proved too slow, exacerbating the traffic jam. However, once alerted to the situation, Cruise promptly took control and autonomously guided all their electric vehicles out of the congested area. Cruise is far from the only autonomous car company testing in Austin.

Residents in Austin, Texas are fed up with Cruise-induced traffic jams—just like Californians. Despite these challenges, companies like Cruise have made remarkable strides in expanding their fleets beyond their Silicon Valley origins, with Austin, Texas, being one of their recent ventures. However, this expansion has not been without its teething problems, as evidenced by the recent traffic snarl in Austin. The DMV’s dispute with the company relates to an Oct. 2 hit and run incident, after which the DMV accused Cruise of withholding information about. Qadri, along with Council Members Paige Ellis and Vanessa Fuentes, received a briefing on self-driving vehicle activity Friday afternoon during the committee meeting.

This isn't the first time that Cruise vehicles have drawn the ire of untrusting residents. Back in January, a driverless car was observed turning into a bike lane. And during another incident, cars were observed treating small residential neighborhoods as throughways. While legal, it caused an unnecessary nuisance to residents who told KXAN that they'd seen as many as 25 cars in a 20-minute span. In essence, while the recent Austin traffic snarl involving Cruise’s robotaxis was a minor hiccup for some commuters, it underscores the complexities of integrating autonomous vehicles into bustling urban landscapes.

The bill also set minimum safety standards for self-driving cars operating in Texas. The legislation, Senate Bill 2205, was celebrated by General Motors at the time. In 2017, the Texas Legislature passed a law preventing local officials from making their own rules like requiring companies to register or pay fees. But first responders were increasingly alarmed at the behavior of the driverless vehicles, records obtained under the Texas Public Information Act show. "We do have a lot of interest in Austin," Rachel Castignoli, a city official monitoring autonomous vehicle companies, said of competing firms. Cruise has also been the subject of a federal probe from the National Highway Traffic and Safety Administration examining if the self-driving vehicles are using appropriate precautions around pedestrians.

Prada is a civil engineering student, specializing in transportation. He isn’t against driverless cars but is not comfortable with them in such a busy area of Austin. While we don’t agree with the tampering of robotaxis, it’s not unfair to say that the nascent technology has room for improvement, and some feel that urban municipalities should not be used as a testing ground. Regardless, companies like Cruise have come a long way, expanding beyond the Bay Area into new cities throughout California and outside of The Golden State in Austin, Texas. The cars have also gotten stuck in crosswalks, at green lights, in intersections, and even played chicken with other Cruise vehicles.