Apple's fleet of self-driving vehicles roaming the streets of California for testing now includes 69 vehicles and 92 drivers, according to information from the California Department of Motor Vehicles obtained by macReports.
This means that Apple has added one self-driving car and 16 drivers since May this year. Apple has been expanding its autonomous vehicle test since it was granted a permit from the California DMV in April 2017, enabling it to test its self-driving technology on public roads in the state. Beginning in early 2018, multiple sources reported on the number of vehicles in Apple's fleet, which steadily expanded throughout that year.
Each of Apple's testing vehicles is equipped with the company's in-development autonomous driving software, along with advanced LiDAR equipment and an array of cameras to detect the vehicle's surroundings. The actual cars are Lexus RX450h sports utility vehicles and must have safety drivers inside of them, since, unlike rival companies that are self-driving technology, Apple's permit still does not include driverless testing.
Apple's fleet of self-driving vehicles are reportedly gathering data for the company's long-rumored autonomous vehicle software. In June of 2017 Apple CEO Tim Cookconfirmed Apple's work on autonomous software: "We're focusing on autonomous systems. It's a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects... it's probably one of the most difficult AI projects to actually work on."
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Apple had more than doubled its self-driving mileage in 2020, reaching a total of 18,805 miles, up from the 7,544 miles the previous year. There were a total of 130 disengagements in 2020, up from 64 in 2019, but Apple's cars experienced a disengagement every 144.6 miles, which is a better metric than the previous year where there was a disengagement every 117.8 miles, indicating an improvement in the technology.
Saturday August 10, 2024 5:00 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple typically releases its new iPhone series in the fall, and a possible September 10 announcement date has been floated this year, which means we are just one month away from the launch of the iPhone 16. Like the iPhone 15 series, this year's lineup is expected to stick with four models – iPhone 16, iPhone 16 Plus, iPhone 16 Pro, and iPhone 16 Pro Max – although there are plenty of design...
Apple's M3 MacBook Pro is seeing multiple high value discounts on Best Buy and Amazon today, with up to $1,000 off select models. This includes a new all-time low price on the entry-level M3 512GB 14-inch MacBook Pro at $1,299.00, down from $1,599.00, and a massive $1,000 discount on the high-end 16-inch model exclusively for Best Buy members. Note: MacRumors is an affiliate partner with Best...
Tuesday August 13, 2024 4:01 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Multiple rumors have suggested that the iPhone 16 models are going to have an all-new button that's designed to make it easier to capture photos when the devices are held in landscape mode. Apple calls the button the Capture Button internally, and it is going to be one of the most advanced buttons that's been introduced to date with support for multiple gestures and the ability to respond to ...
Apple is beta testing iOS 18 and the first update to iOS 18 concurrently, and we got the second betas of iOS 18.1, iPadOS 18.1, and macOS Sequoia 15.1 today alongside the sixth betas of iOS 18, iPadOS 18, and macOS Sequoia 15. Many of the changes in iOS 18.1 are focused on bringing the .1 betas in line with the standard betas, which recently received updates to Photos and Safari, while...
Thursday August 8, 2024 4:40 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we sometimes get rumored feature leaks so far ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different – already we have some idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you plan to skip...
Apple's rumored iPhone 17 "Slim" could be positioned as an iPhone "Air" to boost sales, according to Bloomberg's Mark Gurman. In the latest edition of his "Power On" newsletter, Gurman explained how the "fourth" model in the iPhone lineup since 2020 (the iPhone 12 mini, iPhone 13 mini, iPhone 14 Plus, and iPhone 15 Plus) has largely been a commercial failure. In the case of the Plus model,...
Tesla should open source all their 3D maps, AI data and self driving algorithms.
Their first mover advantage based on having already countless cars on the road gathering data is a de facto tax on the self driving space, thus stifling innovation.
can't be hard to beat tesla. their FSD has turned out to be garbage. elon's smokescreen is lifting away.
An issue with your thesis is that Tesla is the undisputed leader in FSD that's in the hands of non-employees right now.
There's Waymo's little 100 square mile beta, Tesla's national beta with 5K vehicles, and then nobody else.
Then there's widely released autonomy software. Tesla pretty handily leads there with 1M+ vehicles and I don't think anybody is even bothering to try saying they're in the same league as Tesla anymore (GM's Supercruise, Ford's Blue whatever, Nissan Pro-Pilot, and Audi Jam Assist)... they all used to say that they had something, and then it turned out that nobody could match Tesla's first iteration of Autopilot from 2014, nevermind what they're doing today.
Tesla should open source their proprietary software, which they’ve been working on for a decade? Is this a joke? They have a first mover advantage because they entered this space earlier and better and more decisively than any of their competitors. Now other companies get to play catch up. Next time maybe they’ll innovate sooner.
Kinda like sparking a multi-billion dollars app ecosystem in 2008, constantly providing the best hardware and OS updates afterwards to run apps on a pleasant&fast&safe spending-inducing platform and then asking an industry-standard 30% cut on the apps proceeds? I get it, now that I think about it.
An issue with your thesis is that Tesla is the undisputed leader in FSD that's in the hands of non-employees right now.
There's Waymo's little 100 square mile beta, Tesla's national beta with 5K vehicles, and then nobody else.
Then there's widely released autonomy software. Tesla pretty handily leads there with 1M+ vehicles and I don't think anybody is even bothering to try saying they're in the same league as Tesla anymore (GM's Supercruise, Ford's Blue whatever, Nissan Pro-Pilot, and Audi Jam Assist)... they all used to say that they had something, and then it turned out that nobody could match Tesla's first iteration of Autopilot from 2014, nevermind what they're doing today.
Tesla is claiming it's in a league all it's own. GM Super Cruise is most definitely as advanced as Tesla.
Tesla is level 2 autonomous, no matter what Elon says. The "full self driving" is a farce.
There are no level 4 or level 5 autonomous systems out there.
