man's best friend

Pitties and pups: Take your four-legged family member's pic with Santa

Photo by J. Silva

You take pride in your furry children, and nothing says that more than posing with your pup for a holiday family portrait — except maybe the knowledge that doing so will benefit doggies far less fortunate than yours.

On December 1, Love-A-Bull is hosting its fourth annual "Santa Photos" fundraiser from 1 - 5 p.m. at Central Texas Harley-Davidson in Round Rock, The event offers a twist on the traditional holiday snapshot.

All dogs are welcome (and presumably kids, too!) to pose with Santa Claus, surrounded by a bunch of festive holiday Harley-Davidsons. It’s a celebration of both Austin weird and our beloved family members of the four-legged variety.

Photos are $12 (or $10 with a Love-A-Bull membership) and include free lunch (hot dogs, naturally).

All proceeds will go to support Love-A-Bull’s mission to promote responsible guardianship and improve the lives of pit bull-type dogs through education, advocacy and rescue.

You don’t have to have a pit bull to come, and you certainly don’t have to have one to support Love-A-Bull, which comes to the aid of hundreds of Pitties that have been abused or abandoned or who can’t find homes due to misinformation and negative stereotypes.

Or maybe your prefer Seuss to cycles, or maybe you and your pooch are just looking extra good that day? If that’s the case, you can hit up Mud Puppies North Austin for its annual holiday photo fundraiser and get your pup’s pic snapped with either Santa or the Grinch!

The folks at this innovative little doggie day care have teamed up with Austin Dog Rescue for photo ops that benefit the non-profit. You'll get one 5 x 7 print and all digital photos for download for a $20 donation.

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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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