Each year, the California Department of Motor Vehicles publishes detailed information on companies that test self-driving cars in the state. This year’s data has just become public and reveals that Apple completed 18,805 miles of self-driving car tests in California during 2020 – more than double what was reported in 2019.
The self-driving car shutdown reports analyze the number of times a human driver has to take control of an autonomous steering system. This includes when the system itself hands over control or when the human intervenes to take control.
The 2020 data was released today by the California DMV and shows that Apple had 69 cars registered in the state for autonomous driving tests in 2020. This is slightly above the 66 reported in 2019.
In terms of shutdowns, Apple reported a total of 130 shutdowns in 2020, which equates to one shutdown every 145 miles, compared to every 118 miles in 2019.
See how Apple’s autonomous driving tests in California have progressed over the past three years:
- 2020: 18,805 miles, 6.91 disconnections per 1,000 miles
- 2019: 7,544 miles, 8.35 trips per 1,000 miles
- 2018: 79,745 miles, 871.65 disconnections per 1,000 miles
For comparison, Waymo and Cruise reported self-driving disconnections at a rate of 1 disconnection per 12,000 miles. Tesla has not registered test miles for 2020 with the state of California.
Another company that reported testing to DiDi Research America LLC, which is part of Didi Chuxing. Apple invested $ 1 billion in DiDi Chuxing in 2016. DiDi Chuxing allows users in China to order vehicles and taxis through their smartphones, much like Uber, which is its biggest competitor in China.
DiDi reported having 12 test vehicles registered in California in 2020, with a total autonomous mileage of 10,401 and a total of two shutdowns.
Take with a grain of salt
The system that California uses to report miles and directionless shutdowns has been criticized by almost every company involved in testing in the state. For its part, Apple issued the following statement in 2017:
Apple believes that public acceptance is essential to the advancement of automated vehicles. Access to transparent and intuitive data on the safety of tested vehicles will be essential to obtain public acceptance. However, current and proposed shutdown reporting requirements do not achieve this result.
In addition, all data are reported by themselves, so there is little responsibility for the numbers reported by each of these companies. Here is the standard explanation of the California DMV program:
Autonomous vehicle manufacturers who are testing vehicles in the Autonomous Vehicle Tester Program (AVT) and the AVT Driverless Program are required to send annual reports to share the frequency with which their vehicles went out of autonomous mode during testing (either due to technology failure or situations that require the test driver / operator to take manual control of the vehicle to operate safely).
This year, the data comes at a time when rumors surrounding Apple’s plans to develop an autonomous electric car start to gain momentum. Last year, 9to5Mac detailed Apple’s system for building maps and testing autonomous driving, known as Eyedrive. Apple tests its standalone software using Lexus SUVs.
More recently, reports have suggested that Apple could begin production of the Apple Car as early as 2024. Negotiations with Hyundai and Kia Motors have been halted, however, it is unclear how this could affect the overall project schedule.
You can find the full details on the California DMV website.
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