Telecommuting Titans

These major Austin employers rank among the best for work-from-home jobs

Dell and IBM have lots of opportunities to work from home.

Photo courtesy of Dell

Tired of fighting rush-hour traffic on MoPac? Yearning to work from home, in your PJs and slippers? If so, then you should check out two of the major employers here in Austin.

Dell and IBM have been named to FlexJobs’ list of the Top 100 Companies with Remote Jobs in 2017. Dell ranks 16th on the list, and IBM ranks 22nd. Each company employs at least 6,000 people in the Austin area, according to the Austin Chamber of Commerce.

Dell and IBM appear on the list because they were among the 100 companies that posted the most remote-friendly jobs on the FlexJobs website in 2016. For FlexJobs to deem it remote-friendly, a job must offer some level of telecommuting — anywhere from holding a full-time remote position to being given the option to work from home. FlexJobs is an online marketplace for telecommuting jobs.

In a FlexJobs news release, Marie Moynihan, global senior vice president of recruiting at Round Rock-based Dell, says telecommuting and remote work are part of the tech giant’s DNA.

“Our team members consistently tell us that our approach to flexible work is one of the things they value most about our work environment,” Moynihan says. “Flexible working is a core business strategy for us, enabled by our technology, helping us to attract and retain great talent wherever they live around the world, while minimizing our spend on real estate.”

In 2013, Dell said it aimed to have 50 percent of its global workforce telecommuting by 2020. At the time of the announcement, about 3,000 of Dell’s employees in the Austin area were working remotely at least some of the time.

FlexJobs says the number of telecommuting-friendly jobs posted in 2016 by employers like Dell grew 11 percent compared with 2015.

“As more companies embrace remote work in meaningful ways, more people will have greater access to broader career and employment opportunities, creating a positive ripple effect on our economy,” says Sara Sutton Fell, founder and CEO of FlexJobs.

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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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