Apple Adds More Drivers to its Autonomous Vehicle Program; Now 114 Drivers
Reading Time: 2 minutes There are many manufacturers currently developing their own autonomous, or self-driving, technology. Since 2014, California has had an autonomous vehicle testing program; Manufacturers must obtain permits for both their cars and their drivers, from the California DMV. We have been following Apple’s self-driving program for years now, and have reported many times on the changing numbers for both Apple’s program, and the numbers for many of the other major players developing self-driving technology.
We reported back in early August that, by the end of July of this year, Apple had added another car to its self-driving vehicle fleet, for a total of 69. They had also upped the number of drivers registered to drive their autonomous vehicles from 76, in May of this year, to 92. Now, according to the California DMV, Apple has added many more drivers, for a total of 114. Their fleet size has remained at 69 since July. Apple’s number of autonomous vehicle drivers is still down from last October when we reported that they had 154 driver permits.
The latest numbers for Autonomous vehicles registered with the California DMV, as of September 10, 2021, for some of the major manufacturers are:
| Manufacturer Name | Drivers | Vehicles |
| MERC BENZ | 78 | 19 |
| WAYMO LLC | 1537 | 616 |
| TESLA | 86 | 22 |
| CRUISE LLC | 925 | 201 |
| ZOOX INC | 247 | 74 |
| NVIDIA CORPORATION | 207 | 18 |
| APPLE INC | 114 | 69 |
| PONY.AI | 66 | 39 |
| LYFT, INC | 71 | 30 |
| TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE | 35 | 34 |
Since our last report in early August, Waymo (Google), who has, by far, the largest self-driving fleet, has also added another vehicle, and has added almost 300 more drivers. Cruise (GM) has added 22 more drivers. Zoox (Amazon) has added 20 more vehicles and 26 more drivers. Nvidia has added 2 more vehicles and 11 more drivers. Toyota has added 6 more vehicles.
There are several manufacturers who have driverless permits for their fleets. Apple still has not applied for a driverless permit, according to the California DMV. Notable changes since our last report include Pony.ai adding two more to its driverless fleet.
| Manufacturer | Driverless Vehicles |
| WAYMO LLC | 34 |
| NURO, INC | 18 |
| AUTOX TECHNOLOGIES INC | 1 |
| ZOOX, INC | 2 |
| CRUISE LLC | 5 |
| BAIDU USA LLC | 3 |
| WERIDE CORP | 2 |
| PONY.AI, INC | 10 |
Back in early August we also reported on the collision count for the different manufacturers and their autonomous vehicles. Although the numbers here haven’t changed much since the end of July, Cruise has had 4 more collisions, Waymo has had 6, and Apple has had 2 more.
| Manufacturer | Collisions |
| CRUISE LLC | 157 |
| WAYMO LLC | 117 |
| ZOOX INC | 32 |
| LYFT, INC | 8 |
| PONY.AI | 5 |
| APPLE INC | 5 |
| AURORA INNOVATION | 4 |
| UATC, LLC (UBER) | 3 |
| WeRide Corp DBA WeRide AI | 3 |
| ARGO AI, LLC | 2 |
| TOYOTA RESEARCH INSTITUTE | 1 |
Here are some of our recent reports on Apple’s autonomous vehicle program:
