AT&T GigaPower Picks

Which neighborhood has the golden ticket? AT&T reveals picks for first "GigaPower" speeds

In a press release, AT&T maps out which Austin neighborhoods will receive GigaPower first.

EcoChamber.com

KVUE — AT&T customers in Austin don't have to wait for the fastest Internet speeds in town much longer. We now know which neighborhoods will be the first to experience GigaPower.

A release by AT&T on November 4 stated, "This initial deployment will reach tens of thousands of customer locations, including parts of central, northwest, northeast, southwest and southeast Austin and city neighborhoods like French Place, Mueller, Zilker and Onion Creek." It was announced last month that AT&T will be allowing customers to begin using Internet speeds of 300 Mbps in December.

Austinites can still vote to bring GigaPower to their neighborhoods here.

GigaPower is "an all-fiber, lightning-fast Internet network featuring the fastest consumer broadband speeds in town," according to AT&T

GigaPower is "an all-fiber, lightning-fast Internet network featuring the fastest consumer broadband speeds in town and a better HD TV experience," AT&T said. AT&T announced its plans to bring 'Gigabit' Internet speeds to Austin as Google announced its plans to bring Google Fiber to town.

“We’ve already received great input from thousands of Austinites eager for the fastest speeds,” said Vice President and General Manager of Austin AT&T Services, Inc. Dahna Hull said. “These votes are helping us identify where the need for speed and advanced TV services is the greatest and will help guide our future GigaPower expansion plans.”

Customers will be able to have upload and download speeds of up to 300 Mbps in December. After that they will be able to upgrade to speeds up to 1 Gigabit per second in the middle of 2014 at no extra cost.

To put things in perspective, here's what 300 Mbps looks like:

Download 7 songs in one second
Download your favorite TV show in under nine seconds
Download an online HD movie in under two minutes

Here's what 1 Gigabit looks like:

Download 25 songs in one second
Download your favorite TV show in less than 3 seconds
Download an HD online movie in less than 36 seconds

To read the full article, please go to KVUE.com.

unspecified

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.

traffic self-driving cars innovation