Apple Hires More Drivers to Test Autonomous Cars in California

Not exactly a secret that Apple has, for a long time now, a autonomous car testing program in the United States.

A few months ago, however, the company had reduced the number of drivers in its fleet of vehicles yes, despite being autonomous, laws require the presence of a driver in all tests; now this number of drivers has risen again as reported by the macReports.

According to new data from the Department of Motor Vehicles (Department of Motor Vehicles, or DMV) from California, Apple now has a total of 69 autonomous cars and 143 drivers certificates on the road, compared to 110 released last April. The number of vehicles, on the other hand, remains the same, meaning that the tests themselves are in accordance with the company's internal schedule.

As a result, data from the California autonomous vehicle test fleet is arranged as follows, according to DMV data:

  • GM Cruise: 258 cars and 760 drivers;
  • Waymo: 135 cars and 321 drivers;
  • Apple: 69 cars and 143 drivers;
  • Tesla: 32 cars and 136 drivers.

Much of what is known about Apple's autonomous car testing comes from records with California regulators. Earlier this year, for example, the Cupertino giant shared its philosophy behind testing autonomous vehicles, explaining that its goal is to use autonomy to make “products and services smarter, more intuitive and more personalized”.

via 9to5Mac