Each year, the Department of Motor Vehicles in California publishes detailed information from the companies that test self-driving cars in the state. This year’s data has just been released and it reveals that Apple completed 18,805 miles of self-driving car testing in California during 2020 – more than double what was reported in 2019.
Reports on the decoupling of self-driving cars divide the number of times a human driver has to take control of an autonomous driving system. This includes when the system itself hands over control, or when man steps in to take control.
The 2020 data was released today by the California DMV and it shows that Apple registered 69 cars with the state for self-driving tests in 2020. This is slightly higher than the 66 reported in 2019.
In terms of disconnection, Apple reported a total of 130 disconnections in 2020, which equates to a disconnection every 145 miles, compared to every 118 miles in 2019.
Here’s how Apple’s self-management testing in California has progressed over the past three years:
- 2020: 18,805 miles, 6.91 decouplings per 1,000 miles
- 2019: 7.544 miles, 8.35 decouplings per 1,000 miles
- 2018: 79,745 miles, 871.65 disconnections per 1,000 miles
For the sake of comparison, Waymo and Cruise reported autonomous disconnections against management at a rate of 1 disconnection per 12,000 miles. Tesla has not submitted a test mile for 2020 to the state of California.
Another company that reported the tests 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 request vehicles and taxis via their smartphone, just like Uber, which is its biggest competitor in China.
DiDi reported that by 2020 it had 12 registered test vehicles in California with a total mileage of 10,401 and a total of two decouplings.
Take it with a grain of salt
The system California uses to report self-driving miles and disconnections is criticized by nearly every company involved in state tests. In turn, Apple issued the following statement in 2017:
Apple believes that acceptance by the public is essential for the promotion of automotive vehicles. Access to transparent and intuitive data on the safety of vehicles being tested will be important for the public to accept. However, the current and proposed disconnection reporting requirements do not achieve this result.
In addition, all data is self-reported, so there is little liability for the numbers reported by each of these companies. Here is the standard explanation of the California DMV program:
Manufacturers of autonomous vehicles testing vehicles in the Autonomous Vehicle Tester (AVT) program and AVT driverless program must submit annual reports to share how often their vehicles are disconnected during autonomous mode tests (whether due to technological failure or situations involving the test driver required) / driver to manually control the vehicle to operate safely).
This year, the data like rumors surrounding Apple’s plans to develop a self-driving electric car are starting to take hold. Last year, 9to5Mac detailed Apple system for building maps and testing autonomous driving, called Eyedrive. Apple is testing its self-driving software using Lexus SUVs.
Recently, reports suggested that Apple could start production of the Apple Car by 2024. Talks with Hyundai and Kia Motors, however, allegedly failed. It is therefore unclear how this could affect the overall timeline of the project.
You can find the full details on the DMV website in California.
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