Austin Amplified

Amplify Austin crushes $7 million goal with record-breaking numbers

Amplify Austin raised more than $7.7 million in a single day.

Photo courtesy of Amplify Austin

Amplify Austin, the city's 24-hour donation bonanza, shattered this year's goal, raising $7,715,391 in a single day. From 6 pm on March 5 through 6 pm on March 6, Austinites racked up nearly 45,000 individual donations for local nonprofits.

"For the third consecutive year, individual and corporate donors have come through for our community in a big way," said Tom Spencer, executive director of I Live Here, I Give Here in a press release. "Not only did Amplify Austin raise more than $7.7 million, it also raised awareness of the great services provided by our local nonprofits."

The Boys and Girls Club of Central Texas received the most money, racking up $402,952 in donations. YMCA of Austin and Hospice Austin followed in the No. 2 and No. 3 spots, earning $288,087.56 and $254,453, respectively.

Austin Pets Alive! received the most individual donations; nearly 1,200 donors gave $90,211.65 to the local rescue organization. Capital Area Food Bank of Texas had 954 donations, the second highest number of individual donors.

Included in the final tally is the $1 million donation from St. David's Foundation, which led the giving charge by matching donations to its nonprofit partners. University Federal Credit Union, Whole Foods, Seton Healthcare Family, Dell Computers, Cirrus Logic, Tableau Foundation, Lone Star Overnight and Lee & Roger Kintzel provided additional sponsorships.

To see a full list of donations, please go here.

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Self-driving Roller Coaster

More self-driving cars expected to roll out in Austin for 2025

Photo courtesy of Waymo via KVUE

Various brands offering self-driving cars are on-and-off in Austin.

Expect to see more self-driving rideshare vehicles, also known as robotaxis, on Austin roads next year.

Robotaxi company Waymo, which you may have already seen on Austin's roads, is partnering with Uber. At some point next year, customers will be able to use the Uber app to call a self-driving ride.

Austin-based company Avride is in the testing phase and plans to roll out its robotaxis next year.

Currently, Volkswagen ADMT and Amazon's Zoox are in the testing phase in Austin, while Hyundai's Motional is in the mapping phase.

Last year, robotaxi company Cruise paused operations in Austin after the California Department of Motor Vehicles revoked the company's permits to operate driverless vehicles in the state. And last week, General Motors said it would no longer fund the company because of the time and resources needed.

This way of getting around has come with its safety concerns and issues. The city is tracking those concerns. According to the Transportation Department, the problems span from blocking the roads and parking in front of people's homes for weeks with lights beaming through their windows, to actual wrecks.

Since July 2023, robotaxis have been involved in 75 incidents. Only 21 of those incidents happened in 2024. It's important to note that Cruise has not been operating in Austin this year.

Since July 2023, driverless rideshare vehicles have been involved in 22 near collisions, eight collisions and seven instances where driverless taxis ignored directions from the Austin Police Department (APD).

According to the data, at least four of those Austin police incidents happened in recent months. The issues varied from driving through police checkpoints, to malfunctioning and getting stuck at an APD road closure near pedestrians, causing safety concerns.

A Waymo spokesperson said their vehicles have gesture recognition capabilities, which they've been training APD officers on using.

As the report shows, sometimes it does not work and Waymo said it is working to improve that. The spokesperson said that as of just last week, Waymo's First Responder Program has been independently verified by TÜV SÜD, making Waymo the first autonomous vehicle (AV) company to receive third-party validation for our emergency response protocols. They also said the data to date indicates the Waymo Driver is already reducing traffic injuries and fatalities in the places where the company currently operates.

Read the full story and watch the video at KVUE.com.

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