Local News
No timeline on when people can order a ride in San Antonio, company says
SAN ANTONIO – Days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expanded their probe into Waymo, the company confirmed to KSAT its driverless cars are fully autonomous on San Antonio roads as of this month.
While some cars seen in San Antonio still have a person behind the wheel, others are without anyone in the vehicle, concerning some residents.
“Who driving?,” Willie Kelly…
Local News
No timeline on when people can order a ride in San Antonio, company says
SAN ANTONIO – Days after the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration expanded their probe into Waymo, the company confirmed to KSAT its driverless cars are fully autonomous on San Antonio roads as of this month.
While some cars seen in San Antonio still have a person behind the wheel, others are without anyone in the vehicle, concerning some residents.
“Who driving?,” Willie Kelly said. “That’s my thing, like who, who operating it?”
For the last few weeks, KSAT crews have seen the cars at different spots around town, including the Quarry, on the Northeast Side and downtown.
The company told KSAT it does not have a time table for when people in San Antonio can start using the service.
Waymo already offers driverless rides in Austin, Atlanta and San Francisco, where Bridget Crider caught a ride in one.
“It was an experience,” Crider said. “But I would never do it again.”
Before it launches in a city to be able to pick up riders, the company said it maps everything out in detail. The cars use real-time sensor data and artificial intelligence to get around.
“I think it’s kind of dangerous, but it could be dope at the same time,” Kelly said.
Tramain Swindall, who visited San Antonio from Austin, said he’s used to seeing Waymos on the road, but still hesitant about them.
“It’s pretty terrifying to be honest, not knowing that an actual human is driving it,” Swindall said.
Swindall said he’s also noticed a number of Waymos involved in accidents.
KSAT combed through data from the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), and found at least 65 crashes in Austin during 2025 involved driverless Waymos. Six of those led to minor injuries, data shows.
Earlier this month, NHTSA sent a letter to Waymo saying it was expanding its investigation into the company after its cars had been caught driving around stopped school buses in Austin.
KSAT reached out to a Waymo spokesperson on Friday to ask for the company’s response to the federal probe and concerns from potential customers.
*“Skepticism is natural. Fully autonomous driving was once science fiction, but Waymo has made it an everyday reality in major cities across the country. *
Waymo provides hundreds of thousands of rides every week — totaling 14 million this year alone — and has the industry’s leading safety record, which shows a reduction in serious injury crashes by more than 90% compared to drivers where we operate. Our riders appreciate the safety and consistency of our driving, as well as the convenience, privacy, and magic of our fully autonomous vehicles.
Safety is fundamental to everything we do, and we’re committed to working with community leaders and city, state, and federal officials to achieve our shared safety goals."
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