Journalism students at the University of Texas at Austin produced their fifth newscast of the Spring 2026 semester, combining hands-on reporting with coverage of emerging issues in their community.
The segment highlights ongoing research at UT into autonomous vehicle safety, where researchers are developing “dynamic certification” methods—an approach that continuously updates safety evaluations as technology evolves. The work responds to new Texas regulations requiring authorization for autonomous vehicle operators and reflects a broader effort to strengthen public confidence in rapidly changing systems such as Waymo autonomous vehicles.
Postdoctoral researcher Dr. Neel Bhatt noted that with many of these technologies, “we don’t really know what’s under the hood,” underscoring the need to build trust through more adaptive and transparent safety standards.
Click here to watch the Reporting Texas TV segment.