Apple Adds 11 Drivers to Autonomous Fleet; Other Manufacturers See Changes
The California DMV has sent macReports the latest numbers on the autonomous vehicle programs operating there. Many of the manufacturers have seen changes to the size of their self-driving fleet, or to the size of their licensed driver crews. Although most of the changes since our last report in November are fairly small, there have been some shake-ups – notably, Lyft’s departure from the autonomous vehicle program in California after having sold their autonomous vehicle program to Woven Planet Holdings, a Toyota subsidiary. We also see that Pony.ai’s driverless program is down to zero licensed vehicles – after their permit was suspended following a crash back in October.
Notable Changes Since November
- Apple has added 11 drivers to their crew for a new driver crew size of 148. Their fleet size however remains unchanged at 69 vehicles.
- Waymo has decreased the size of their driver crew – now down to 1526 from 1628 in November. Their fleet size also remains unchanged at 690.
- Cruise has added drivers – now at 1064, up from 992. Their fleet size has also increased to 218 – up from 203.
- Zoox has added both drivers and vehicles to their program. They have added 73 drivers and 5 vehicles to their program for new totals of 388 and 90, respectively.
- Nvidia has increased the driving crew to 226 – up from 220, and they have decreased their fleet size from 18 to 14.
- Pony.ai added 4 new drivers and 1 new vehicle, for totals of 66 drivers and 41 vehicles.
- Lyft had 71 drivers and 30 licensed vehicles back in November, before selling their program to Woven Planet (Toyota).
Fleet Volumes from California DMV – January 21, 2022
Manufacturer Name | Drivers | Vehicles |
MERC BENZ | 89 | 37 |
WAYMO LLC | 1526 | 690 |
TESLA | 86 | 22 |
CRUISE LLC | 1064 | 218 |
ZOOX INC | 388 | 90 |
NVIDIA CORPORATION | 226 | 14 |
APPLE INC | 148 | 69 |
PONY.AI | 66 | 41 |
LYFT, INC | 0 | 0 |
TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE | 35 | 34 |
Driverless Programs
Still no driverless application from Apple. Some of the other manufacturers that do have driverless programs have made some changes to their fleet sizes:
- Waymo has added 20 cars to its driverless fleet, now at 54.
- Cruise has added many cars to its driverless fleet. They are up to 52 now, from 20 in November.
- Apollo was previously licensed as Baidu, but their number of vehicles remains the same.
- Pony.ai had 10 autonomous vehicles licensed last November. However, after a crash in October, their driverless permit was suspended.
Driverless Fleet Volumes as of January 21, 2022
Manufacturer | Driverless Vehicles |
WAYMO LLC | 54 |
NURO, INC | 18 |
AUTOX TECHNOLOGIES INC | 1 |
ZOOX, INC | 2 |
CRUISE LLC | 52 |
APOLLO AUTONOMOUS DRIVING USA LLC | 3 |
WERIDE CORP | 2 |
PONY.AI, INC | 0 |
Driverless Deployment
No changes here since last November. We still see only three manufacturers with permits to actually deploy their driverless vehicles.
Issue Date | Manufacturer Name |
Dec 23, 2020 | NURO, INC |
Sep 30, 2021 | CRUISE LLC |
Sep 30, 2021 | WAYMO LLC |
Crashes happen. The California DMV keeps a count of all of the collisions that involve autonomous vehicles. As expected, for most of the manufacturers, their numbers have increased since our last report. We would expect more crashes from the larger programs, and from those who are doing more testing – although we can’t get any data on how much testing each program is doing. What we see is:
- Cruise has now had 167 crashes, up from 159 in November.
- Waymo has added 6 more crashes, for a total of 135.
- Zoox has had 4 more – now at 39.
- Apple has had a couple more – now with 8.
- Pony.ai and WeRide have both added 1.
Collision Numbers as of January 21, 2022
Manufacturer | Collisions |
CRUISE LLC | 167 |
WAYMO LLC | 135 |
ZOOX INC | 39 |
PONY.AI | 6 |
APPLE INC | 8 |
AURORA OPERATIONS | 4 |
WeRide Corp DBA WeRide AI | 4 |
ARGO AI, LLC | 3 |
TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE | 1 |
Previous Reports on Apple’s Autonomous Vehicle Program