I didn’t know what to title this post
It could have been titled Beauty and the Beast! or Is this the world’s most ugliest vehicle? or Would you ride in this?
On my latest visit to Texas in September 2024 we had intended to drive to a park and ride facility in Lakeline – TX and ride the light rail into Austin. Due to the intense heat we were experiencing we decided not to be tied to the timetable and drive to downtown Austin on the Sunday we were there and take advantage of free parking.
We found parking on Congress Avenue by the Paramount Theatre which was a perfect location a few blocks north of Ladybird Lake and the Texas Capitol building. As we were waiting to cross the road a car with all sorts of whirring lights and cameras stopped at the red light. I was convinced it was the Google Maps car re-mapping for any updates. It drove off but I didn’t remember that the Google Maps car I had seen in the UK having cameras at each corner and at the front and back. The white car had Waymo livery on the back door and to be honest we didn’t think more about it until another one passed us and my daughter shouted out that the car had no driver and no passengers either.
We decided that perhaps they were testing the vehicles in Austin before they would allow passengers to use them. That was exactly what we found out on our return that Austin is about to launch Waymo where you can hail these autonomous vehicles. The waiting list is open Austin!
I was surprised that the service has been running for about 2 years in Phoenix and then San Francisco already. I had never heard of the service. I had heard on the news in the UK that Tesla were testing driverless cars and have been for a few years and would that be an appropriate thing to have on roads in the UK.
We saw one of these for the first time in Georgetown – TX again waiting to cross the road. Honestly I did a double take. I thought initially that it was a car built by an enthusiastic science fiction fan trying to recreate something from Blade Runner. I would have taken a photo whilst crossing but didn’t want to engage the driver so ended up taking one as it drove by.
Later the same day we saw another one and thought at first it was the same vehicle but realised it was a different colour anyway. We had to ask Google what we had seen and were really surprised to discover that it was a Tesla and it was a truck. I have to ask is this the “World’s ugliest car?” By the end of our 10 days in Texas we had seen about 9 of them and boy are they ugly but they really do stand out from all the other SUV and Trucks on Texas roads. The price tag is $80,000 up to around $100,000 which is colossal and I bet hardly any of them are being driven in the style that they were intended to be driven. I can’t imagine the owners would take them off road or even want to get them dirty.
USA Road Trips by Max 
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