Donation Drive

The Prius Project invites you to donate to a worthy cause and (maybe) win a newcar

Last Thursday, AIDS Services of Austin discovered it will be one of the 18 Austin area agencies no longer receiving funds from the United Way of Greater Austin, a move that will result in an immediate loss for ASA of $55,000.

But soon, help will arrive in the shape of a brand new 2012 Toyota Prius Three courtesy of Austin real estate professional David Owen, his company A List Partners, and the philanthropic campaign, The Prius Project.

The Prius Project is raffling off the fully-loaded Prius to raise as much as $125,000 for ASA to help maintain its general operating budget and support the The Paul Kirby Fund, which provides assistance to people living with HIV and AIDS to pay their basic living expenses and medical bills.

Each raffle ticket costs $25.00 (or five tickets for $100.00), and only 5,000 raffle tickets will be sold. (That means the chance of your ticket winning the car is 1 in 5,000.) The winner will be announced on November 3 at an A List Partners event.

Tickets can be purchased online, from any member of the Octopus Club fundraising organization or anywhere the Prius Poject car shows up. Scheduled events include the upcoming ASA 25th Anniversary Celebration on October 6 and AIDS Walk Austin on October 21.

“The beauty of this campaign is that it is more than just writing a check once a year to a deserving organization,” Owen said in a statement Thursday. “The Prius Project is actually a way for a nonprofit to take a donation and leverage that donation to create five times the fundraising power.”

The current Prius is just the first in a line of cars to be raffled off to benefit ASA. Over the course of The Prius Project's 10-year philanthropic commitment, the goal is to raise $1.5 million for ASA.

Self-driving Roller Coaster

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

Waymo car

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.

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

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