Mobile Arena raises parking concerns, city officials say not to worry
'Sand In My Boots' fest brings $70M impact to South Baldwin, but event's future uncertain
However, Mobile officials told News 5 there is nothing to worry about as each year they take in hundreds of thousands of people for Mardi Gras.
'We deal with it every year,' City of Mobile Deputy Chief of Staff Joe Snowden said. 'We get people in, and we get people out.'
John Gwin lives across the street from the construction site.
'I could've thrown a rock and hit the civic center,' Gwin said.
He is worried that his neighborhood streets will take the impact of overflow parking. He hopes the city will turn the roads to only one-sided parking.
'A lot of the streets are not wide enough for particularly a fire truck to get down,' Gwin said.
Snowden said with the addition of the new parking garage, downtown Mobile will have roughly 7,000 parking spots available. That would be through garages, street parking and surface lots.
'We foresee people using Uber, staying at a hotel and using their parking spaces,' Snowden said.
Snowden said the city would love for each event to pack out the Mobile Arena, but they can't guarantee that for every event, so they feel like traffic will be more than manageable.
'With any big event, MPD will be there and also working with ALDOT; we can foresee those challenges and kind of mitigate those ahead of time,' Snowden said.
News 5 also asked about the large green space in the renderings that could be used for more parking. Snowden said the area could be used for future development of the property.
Spring brings dolphins, sharks and spotted rays to Orange Beach waters
The parking garage is expected to be complete by July.
Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
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Turns out, Kyle had asked that the driver's seat move forward to give him more legroom on his first Robotaxi ride that day; then every car he got into the rest of the day had the driver's seat in the same position! Since the Robotaxi was connected to his Tesla app, it could seamlessly display his apps on the screen. I thought this was one of the coolest features in the Robotaxi. Robotaxi Provided a Comfortable Ride Around Austin Once our belts were buckled, the Robotaxi began our ride, smoothly and easily navigating through busy downtown Austin, changing lanes to get out of a bus lane, and steering safely through a construction zone. The ride was really comfortable, and each route was simple and direct — something that self-driving rideshare doesn't always get right because they have to align their drop-off points with a lot of other data, including pre-selected passenger loading locations. I appreciated the calm feel in the cabin, thanks in part to the lack of screens: there are only two. A large center screen on the front dash displays your current route and the traffic around you, including pedestrians and bicyclists, and a smaller screen in the rear seat. Screens Allow You To Understand Your Ride and Get Help If You Need it The small rear seat screen displays your route, your estimated arrival time, and your phone's apps, so you can add music to your ride, answer messages, and the like. It is also where you'll find two help options: Support, which will connect you with a human, and Pull Over, which you can use for emergencies. When we tapped it, a support desk person came online and asked if we were having an emergency; she said if we wanted to change our drop-off, to do it on the app, not the screen. I appreciated being able to see everything on the large front screen; it lets you see what the car is seeing, preparing for, or reacting to. Even though it's camera-based, the system seems to be able to see around corners and see things I could not, which was comforting. How the Robotaxi Drives Itself: Full Self-Driving Plus The big question, though is: are these cars safe? Do they get it right, and how? In my experience, the Robotaxi rides were flawless, though Kyle and his pal Coleton did experience the car getting stuck in a navigation loop, which is a common mistake for self-driving cars these days. Once they realized what was happening, they called for support and reported it; the support person made adjustments that Kyle believed might have been a remote takeover of the car to set the Robotaxi on the proper course. They never felt like the car was unsafe, misidentifying signs or other vehicles, or ignoring the rules of the road. This is actually pretty remarkable since Robotaxis function using only cameras, while other self-driving rideshare systems like Waymo use lidar and radar, which you can see on the outside of their cars. All of them, however, map the roads they drive, communicate with other cars on the road, and only function inside a geo-fenced area. Waymo's service area encompasses downtown Austin and surrounding areas. I'd show you Tesla's service area map, but we're a family site, and frankly, its design is childish and offensive. You can see them both here. (The first time I saw the Robotaxi map, I thought it was a joke, but no.) Kyle, who uses FSD in his personal Tesla, felt like the system in the Robotaxi was more advanced than the consumer version. Of course, it's not the same; the commercial version requires a driver behind the wheel for one thing. He thought the Robotaxi was sharper, more responsive, and more attuned to everything on the road. What Does Robotaxi Cost, and How Does it Compare to Waymo? Our Robotaxi fares were pretty low throughout the day: never more than $10. Most rides were in the $4-$5 range. Comparatively, the Waymo Uber fare was $11-$20 to go the same distance. This is because Waymo is priced the same as a driver-supported Uber, so as not to undercut the market. Tesla clearly doesn't mind undercutting the market and probably will until the company has a clear advantage; even though they are not paying retail for their cars, they are not free, nor are the software updates and the support desk. Robotaxi (or Waymo), Or Human-Driven Rideshare? I was an early fan of Cruise (and wish GM hadn't given up on it), and I really appreciate that soon enough we'll have self-driving options for most of our routine journeys. I also like that these cars tend to be newer and cleaner than the typical Uber because they have to be charged and maintained by the rideshare company. But most of all, I like the personal safety factor. No driver to threaten or harass you. You control the locking and unlocking of the car. You can change the pickup location at any time. The car will wait for you. You can call the support desk if you need help. You can change your destination if the drop-off area seems sketchy. All of it together makes me feel safer getting a car home from the airport at midnight or into the city after dark, and I definitely feel safer having my daughters take a self-driving rideshare when they go out to meet friends for dinner. This is also what I appreciated about my Cruise rides in Austin: those were all at night (the service only operated from 8 PM -6 AM), and I was by myself. But it was the Uber stat that really shook me! Even though self-driving rideshare is in its infancy, it'll mature and work the bugs out, like any technology. And in the end, we'll all be safer.
