Apple Doubles Self-Driving Miles In California In 2020, Opt-Out Rate Improves

Each year, the California Department of Motor Vehicles publishes detailed information about companies testing self-driving cars in the state. This year’s data has just been made public and reveals that Apple completed 18,805 miles of autonomous driving tests in California in 2020, more than double what was reported in 2019.

Autonomous car disengagement reports describe the number of times a human driver must take control of an autonomous driving system. This includes when the system itself takes control or when the human steps in to take control.

Data for 2020 was released today by the California DMV and shows Apple had 69 cars registered with the state for self-driving tests in 2020. This is a slight increase from the 66 reported in 2019.

In terms of disengaging, Apple reported a total of 130 disengages in 2020, which equates to one disengage every 145 miles, compared to every 118 miles in 2019.

Here’s how Apple’s self-driving tests in California have progressed over the past three years:

• 2020: 18,805 miles, 6.91 disengages per 1,000 miles
• 2019: 7,544 miles, 8.35 disengages per 1,000 miles
• 2018: 79,745 miles, 871.65 disengages per 1,000 miles

For comparison, Waymo and Cruise reported autonomous driving disengages at a rate of 1 disengage per 12,000 miles. Tesla did not file 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 request vehicles and taxis through their smartphones, just like Uber, which is its biggest competitor in China.

DiDi said it has 12 test vehicles registered in California in 2020, with a total mileage of 10,401 autonomous kilometers and a total of two walkouts.

Take it with a grain of salt

The system California uses to report autonomous driving miles and disengages has been criticized by almost every company involved in testing in the state. For its part, Apple released 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 gain public acceptance. However, the current and proposed disengagement reporting requirements do not achieve this result.

Additionally, all data is self-reported, so the numbers reported by each of these companies are not responsible. Here is the standard explanation of the California DMV program:

Autonomous vehicle manufacturers who test vehicles under the Autonomous Vehicle Tester (AVT) Program and the AVT Driverless Program are required to submit annual reports to indicate how often their vehicles have disengaged from autonomous mode during testing (whether due to a technological failure or to situations requiring the test driver / operator to take manual control of the vehicle to operate safely).

This year, the data comes as rumors surrounding Apple’s plans to develop an autonomous electric car begin to gain traction. Last year, 9to5Mac Apple’s detailed system for creating maps and testing autonomous driving, called Eyedrive. Apple is testing its autonomous driving software using Lexus SUVs.

More recently, reports have suggested that Apple may start production of the Apple car as early as 2024. Discussions with Hyundai and Kia Motors have reportedly failed, however, it is unclear how this could affect the overall project schedule.

You can find all the details on the California DMV website.

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