Apple's self-driving car fleet leaps to 55 vehicles

Apple car

Apple's fleet of self-driving cars continues to grow as the tech giant now has 55 autonomous vehicles on the road, according to data gathered from the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV).

The DMW revealed to MacReports that Apple's permit to test autonomous vehicles in the state currently covers 55 self-driving cars and 83 drivers.

Apple's driverless car corps started with just three vehicles in 2017 before jumping to 45 earlier this year. Now, Apple counts over 55 autonomous cars in its fleet. 

The iPhone X maker doesn't yet have a permit to test self-driving cars without a human operator behind the wheel – no word yet on Apple's plans on that front. 

What's also impressive about Apple's self-driving car growth is that it has the second largest autonomous car fleet on the road in the Golden State, behind GM Cruise and its 104 cars. 

After Apple comes Google's Waymo with 51 cars (and 338 drivers). Tesla and its 39 vehicles and Drive.AI with 14 cars round out the top five. 

Unlike Waymo and Uber's self-driving car programs, Apple has kept relatively quiet about its plans to put driverless cars on the road, with much of the information on the program coming from the DMW. 

However, sharp eyes have spotted Apple's autonomous cars driving around. The question is, when will Apple lift the veil on whatever it's been working on?

Via Engadget

Michelle Fitzsimmons

Michelle was previously a news editor at TechRadar, leading consumer tech news and reviews. Michelle is now a Content Strategist at Facebook.  A versatile, highly effective content writer and skilled editor with a keen eye for detail, Michelle is a collaborative problem solver and covered everything from smartwatches and microprocessors to VR and self-driving cars.