Apple Now Has More Than 50 Self-Driving Cars on the Road
The tech company’s self-driving program continues to flourish.
Apple has more than doubled the number of its self-driving cars, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has . Since to test autonomous vehicles, Apple’s fleet size has steadily risen — from a scant three test cars, to , and now, 55 intelligent machines. Should the program remain on course, consumers could be .
The intake is accompanied by 83 drivers who will be testing the vehicles. At this stage, Apple hasn’t been authorized to test self-driving cars independent of human supervision; for that, the company will need to submit a separate permit to the DMV — something Waymo did . The DMV also revealed that a second unnamed company had requested approval to begin driverless testing, but hasn’t parted with any additional details.
Going to need more than 140 characters to go over ?’s Project Titan. I call it “The Thing”
— MacCallister Higgins (@macjshiggins)
Related: Waymo Partners With Jaguar on Self–Driving Cars
We do know that the autonomous car scene is heating up — Tesla and Drive.Ai are lagging behind Apple, but fellow California-native GM Cruise leads the pack with 104 vehicles with self-driving capacity. Still, one of the biggest issues inherent to automated technology is safety. The involving one of Uber’s self-driving prototypes — apparently due to misaligned software — couldn’t be stopped by the test driver in time.
This indicates a margin of error that’s worth considering before rushing into fully self-driving trials; before the public can accept autonomous cars as a reliable alternative, companies need to gain its trust. There’s always a risk of mechanical failure, and human error can’t be ignored, either. but if companies identified problems and developed adequate prevention measures in advance, the number of could experience a remarkable drop. That might push back release schedules, but autonomous safety should be top priority.
Related: Tim Cook Says Apple Is Working on ‘the Mother of All AI Projects’
Apple has more than doubled the number of its self-driving cars, the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has . Since to test autonomous vehicles, Apple’s fleet size has steadily risen — from a scant three test cars, to , and now, 55 intelligent machines. Should the program remain on course, consumers could be .
The intake is accompanied by 83 drivers who will be testing the vehicles. At this stage, Apple hasn’t been authorized to test self-driving cars independent of human supervision; for that, the company will need to submit a separate permit to the DMV — something Waymo did . The DMV also revealed that a second unnamed company had requested approval to begin driverless testing, but hasn’t parted with any additional details.
Going to need more than 140 characters to go over ?’s Project Titan. I call it “The Thing”
— MacCallister Higgins (@macjshiggins)
