Austin, TX
Texas lawmakers address lack of regulations for driverless vehicles
Texas lawmakers talk safety of driverless cars
State lawmakers are working on ways to ensure the safety of riders and drivers sharing the roadways with autonomous vehicles.
AUSTIN, Texas – State lawmakers are working on ways to ensure the safety of riders and drivers sharing the roadways with autonomous vehicles.
A Senate transportation hearing held on Wednesday addressed the lack of regulation in Texas for driverless vehicles.
“To many of our first responders communities, this is new territory for them. They are not quite sure how to handle an AV. I mean pulling over an autonomous vehicle, you know, what do you do? An autonomous vehicle in an accident, what do you do?” says District 14 Texas State Senator Sarah Eckhardt.
“One of the key things is to prepare and actually submit and have a dialogue with first responders in this first responder interaction plan,” says Autonomous Vehicle Industry Association General Council Ariel Wolf.
New safety concerns about driverless cars
There are new safety concerns about driverless cars that are on the road in Austin. Federal regulators are looking into whether Waymo’s self-driving technology is actually causing crashes.
A senate transportation hearing focused on the safety of Texans using and sharing the roadways with autonomous vehicles, as the source of transportation continues to grow across the state.
“We have had at least 17 companies that have deployed or tested on roads here in Texas. As the technology matured and evolved, we fully expected that the laws would evolve as well,” says Director of State Affairs Alliance for Automotive Innovation, Nick Steingart.
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Transportation experts presented methods to regulate autonomous vehicles and companies if safety concerns arise.
“We propose an adjustment that would allow the DMV to suspend or revoke the registration of an autonomous vehicle in certain circumstances, providing the DMV with the ability to review registrations to ensure that applicable requirements are met. The process would apply to all AV’s regardless of vehicle class or use case,” says Wolf.
“Everybody is not quite as safe as others and if somebody chooses not to be a safe provider, then the state at some point needs to be able to be in a position to step in and have a set of rules to follow that everybody understands and everybody agrees on what the rules are to start with,” says District 13 Texas State Senator Robert Nichols.
Driverless cars coming back to Austin
The self-driving car company Waymo and the ride-share service Uber are partnering up to provide rides on the same app.
In 2017, Senate Bill 2205 allowed driverless vehicles on highways. The autonomous cars are required to follow traffic laws, have a video recording device, and be insured.
Since Texas enacted its AV law seven years ago, the state has become the center of the autonomous trucking industry in the United States.
“AV companies here have established commercial partnerships with major brands,” says Wolf.
Senators also addressed concern about the economic impact driverless vehicles have on the state.
“There is a growing and expanding driver shortage and so the way the industry looks at it is proceeding in partnership with the existing workforce and being able to fill existing needs,” says Wolf.
This month, Waymo did announce a partnership with Uber set to start testing at the beginning of the year, bringing more autonomous vehicles to Austin roadways.
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AUSTIN, Texas — The next wave of scientific discovery is being built right here in Central Texas.
The Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC) at The University of Texas at Austin is teaming up with Dell Technologies and NVIDIA to launch Horizon, which will become the largest academic supercomputer in the United States when it goes online in 2026.
Designed to be a major engine for open science, Horizon will help researchers tackle some of the toughest problems of our time—from extreme weather forecasting to medical breakthroughs to national security.
A Texas-sized leap in computing power
Horizon will deliver 300 petaflops of performance—making it ten times faster than TACC’s current supercomputer, Frontera. For researchers, that means bigger projects, faster insights, and entirely new possibilities.
“It’s really exciting for Austin and for the University of Texas,” said Dan Stanzione, Associate Vice President for Research at UT and Executive Director of TACC. “We’ll have the largest academic computing resource in the country. Researchers will have unparalleled access to computing anywhere in the world.”
A supercomputer built in Central Texas
Horizon isn’t just located in Austin—it’s being built here, too.
Dell is designing the integrated racks.
Final assembly is happening in Georgetown.
The system will be housed in a Round Rock data center.
NVIDIA chips and VAST storage—both companies with Austin teams—power the hardware.
“Everyone involved has an Austin tie,” Stanzione said. “Finally deploying one of these major systems in the Austin area is pretty exciting.”
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What Horizon will do
In its first year, TACC expects hundreds of research projects to run on Horizon. Some of the earliest will focus on Texas-specific challenges, such as:
More accurate hurricane and storm surge forecasts
Disaster resilience modeling for the Gulf Coast
Healthcare and drug discovery
New materials and battery development
Horizon will also become the AI hub for UT Austin, enabling breakthroughs in machine learning and large-scale data analysis.
Keeping a giant cool
Running a supercomputer this large takes serious engineering. Each cabinet draws around 225,000 watts, requiring advanced cooling solutions.
Propylene glycol will flow directly across the chips, while chilled water circulates through rear-door radiators. In total, the system will move about 400,000 gallons of water per hour to keep everything stable.
What Dell says
For Dell Technologies, Horizon is a major step forward for the region and the research community.
“Horizon delivers over 300 petaflops of performance—ten to twelve times faster than Frontera,” said Seamus Jones, Director of Server Engineering. “It will help researchers break boundaries and drive advancements in technologies we haven’t even imagined yet.”
A new era for Texas innovation
With Horizon, Austin is poised to become the nation’s center for high-performance academic computing. The supercomputer will serve thousands of researchers across disciplines—and could reshape how science is done for years to come.
AUSTIN, Texas — Volunteers gathered in East Austin on Saturday to build a wheelchair ramp for a local resident, marking the Texas Ramp Project’s 40th anniversary of providing free mobility solutions to Texans in need.
Jimmy Garcia received the ramp at his home on East 22nd Street, where volunteers worked from morning through early afternoon to complete the installation. Before the ramp, he relied on his wife Jenny or their children to help him navigate the stairs.
“I feel grateful. I appreciate it,” Garcia said. “It’s a good program.”
Volunteers gathered in East Austin on Saturday to build a wheelchair ramp for a local resident, marking the Texas Ramp Project’s 40th anniversary of providing free mobility solutions to Texans in need. (Photo: Texas Ramp Project)
Jackie Gardener, the build team leader, said the organization has served more than 30,000 individuals across Texas since its founding in 1985. The nonprofit commemorated four decades of service by constructing one of 40 ramps planned across the state.
“It is such a special feeling of joy to be able to see a client take a look at their ramp and know that in less than a day, we’ve really changed somebody’s life,” Gardener said.
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More than 1.7 million Texans use wheelchairs or walkers, with nearly 23% of residents 65 or older living with mobility-limiting disabilities, according to the organization.
Jenny Garcia said the ramp would restore her husband’s independence after concerns about falls on the steps. “It’s going to be a big improvement with his walker to be able to come down by himself and have his independence back somewhat,” she said.
The organization depends entirely on its network of 3,500 volunteers. WellMed and the WellMed Charitable Foundation have contributed more than $100,000 and helped build over 100 ramps.
More information is available here.
UIL STATE VOLLEYBALL FINALS
When/where: Thursday-Saturday in Garland.
Thursday — Class A, Blum vs. Water Valley, 3 p.m.; Class 2A DI, Jewett Leon vs. Nocona, 5 p.m.; Class 2A DII, Iola vs. Crawford, 7 p.m. Friday — Class 3A DI, Goliad vs. Bushland, 11 a.m.; Class 3A DII, Clifton vs. Boyd, 1 p.m.; Class 4A DI, La Vernia vs. Decatur, 4 p.m.; Class 4A DII, Wimberley vs. Eagle Mountain, 6 p.m. Saturday — Class 5A DI, A&M Consolidated vs. Highland Park, 11 a.m.; Class 5A DII, Cedar Park vs. Argyle, 1 p.m.; Class 6A DI, Pearland Dawson vs. Northwest Nelson, 4 p.m.; Class 6A DII, Austin High vs. Southlake Carroll, 6 p.m.
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