Riding Outta Town

Austin ride-hailing service permanently drives out of business

RideAustin is permanently parked.

Four years after its founding, the nonprofit ride-hailing app RideAustin announced this week that it will shutter operations.

The app started in 2016 after Uber and Lyft left Austin in the wake of city regulations that the two ride-hailing giants felt were unfair. In contrast, RideAustin promised to comply with city regulations and focus on paying the driver a fair share, while also giving back to the community with its charity tie-in.

In four years, RideAustin took 3 million rides and helped to raise $450,000 for local nonprofits. RideAustin drivers earned $38 million in that span.

“We feel incredibly grateful to have been embraced by the Austin community,” the app said via email on Friday. “Thank you again fellow Austinites. We are proud to have worked together with you to make a lasting impact on our community. Thank you for supporting our cause and for keeping it local.”

The nonprofit aspect allowed riders to round-up their fares and donate the remaining cents to a charity of their choice. RideAustin also offered the "Female Driver Mode," which matched women passengers with women drivers. The app also gave back through a partnership with the Community Care Collaborative to offer medical rides to the underprivileged, free rides for veterans, and delivery services for nonprofits and charities.

At the end of March, RideAustin CEO Andy Tryba announced that the service would be suspending operations due to the coronavirus pandemic, though the city deemed ride-hailing “essential business” and Uber and Lyft continued to operate. Tryba told the Austin American-Statesman at the time that he struggled with the decision, which forced him to balance overall safety with the financial impact the suspension would have on drivers.

Tryba insisted that RideAustin was "highly embedded" in the Austin community, and promised to support drivers by recommending them to other employers.

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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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