The fair place to meet is Kansas City, MO — the city closest to the midpoint of Austin and Minneapolis. From the farther side that’s about 13 hr 20 min of driving.
Recommended midpoint
Kansas City, MO
From Austin
13 hr 20 min
636 mi to Kansas City
From Minneapolis
8 hr 38 min
412 mi to Kansas City
Minneapolis has the shorter trip; the split is off by about 4 hr 42 min. The alternatives below can even it out. Austin and Minneapolis are about 1,045 miles apart.
Austin and Minneapolis are about 1,045 miles apart by road. Split the difference and you arrive near Kansas City, the city closest to the halfway point between them. That puts roughly 13 hr 20 min of driving on the Austin side and 8 hr 38 min on the Minneapolis side — the fairest single meeting point among the cities near the middle.
Over this distance most people will fly rather than drive the whole way. Kansas City still makes a fair, central place for Austin and Minneapolis to converge, splitting the travel instead of asking one side to cross the country.
If Kansas City doesn't have what you're after, Oklahoma City and Omaha are also close to the midpoint and worth a look — each keeps the drive reasonably balanced between Austin and Minneapolis.
Kansas City, abbreviated KC or KCMO, is the largest city in the U.S. state of Missouri by both population and area. It is located on the Missouri River at its confluence with the Kansas River, within Jackson, Clay, Platte and Cass counties. Read more →
Austin is the capital city of the U.S. state of Texas. With a population of 961,855 at the 2020 census, it is the 12th-most populous city in the U.S., fifth-most populous city in Texas, and second-most populous U.S. Read more →
Minneapolis is a city in Hennepin County, Minnesota, United States, and its county seat. With a population of 429,954 as of the 2020 census, it is the state's most populous city. Read more →
City descriptions adapted from Wikipedia (CC BY-SA); photos via Wikimedia Commons, credited above.
Estimates use straight-line distance and typical road speeds; real drive times vary with route and traffic.