Apple over doubled the mileage of its self-driving vehicles last year, according to new data released by the California DMV.
In 2019, Apple’s autonomous vehicles drove 7,544 miles. This year that number has jumped to 18,805 miles. Notably, Apple had 64 disengagements in 2019 compared to 130 in 2020. That’s improvement of a disengagement for every 118 miles in 2019 versus a disengagement for every 145 miles in 2020.
Though getting better, Apple’s disengagements are way behind rivals like Waymo which drove 628,838.5 miles in 2020 with just 21 disengagements which works out to one disengagement per 29,945 miles.
Apple had 69 vehicles in its self-driving fleet last year. The company uses the Lexus 450h SUV outfitted with LiDAR. Check out some photos here and here.
It’s widely rumored that Apple is pursuing the production of a self-driving electric vehicle. Talks with Hyundai have purportedly fallen through; however, the company is likely in discussions with several other potential manufacturing partners.
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