Apple Adds More Drivers to its Autonomous Vehicle Program; Waymo, Cruise Make Huge Additions to Their Driverless Fleets

There have been big changes in some of the autonomous vehicle programs in California since our June 2022 report. According to the California DMV, Apple has added 15 more drivers to its program — the largest increase since late last year. Waymo has made large cuts to its drivered program, moving significant resources to its driverless fleet. Cruise has also reduced the size of its driver team and nearly doubled the size of its driverless fleet. Apple, meanwhile, has still not applied for a permit to test driverless cars in California.

Since our last report in June of this year, there have been some notable changes:

• Although Toyota itself has been involved in the self-driving program for a while, Woven Planet, a Toyota subsidiary, has made big moves on the California self-driving scene. It showed up in late 2021 with 51 drivers and 5 vehicles as of November 2021. It now has 77 drivers and 37 vehicles.
• Apple has increased its number of drivers by 15 and now has 180 drivers and 69 vehicles. The number of vehicles has remained steady since July 2021.
• Mercedes Benz has added 45 drivers and 7 vehicles.
• Waymo has dropped its number of drivers from 1290 to 1057. It has also dramatically reduced its drivered fleet size by 285.
• Cruise has also reduced its driving team by 80 but increased its number of vehicles by 21.
• Zoox has increased its driving team by 245 and added 7 cars to its fleet.
• Nvidia has added 10 drivers.
• Nuro has decreased its number of drivers by 22 and increased its fleet size by 3.
• Motional has added 4 drivers and 13 cars.

Fleet volumes

Fleet volumes from California DMV as of September 16, 2022

Manufacturer Name	Drivers	Vehicles
MERC BENZ	134	53
WAYMO	1057	345
TESLA	86	22
CRUISE	417	386
ZOOX	819	119
NVIDIA	265	14
APPLE	180	69
TOYOTA	35	34
NURO	90	44
MOTIONAL	60	66
WOVEN PLANET	77	37

Driverless programs

The two biggest players in the California self-driving game, Waymo and Cruise, have massively upped their driverless fleet sizes. Along with Nuro, they are the only ones with permits to deploy their driverless vehicles in California.

• Waymo has added 227 vehicles to its driverless fleet, more than doubling its fleet size.
• Cruise increased its driverless fleet size from 131 to 253.

Driverless fleet volumes as of September 16, 2022

Manufacturer	Vehicles
WAYMO	316
NURO	14
AUTOX	1
ZOOX	2
CRUISE	253
APOLLO	4
WERIDE	4

Driverless deployment

The list of manufacturers who are licensed to deploy their driverless cars has remained unchanged since September 2021.

Issue Date	Manufacturer
Dec 23, 2020	NURO
Sep 30, 2021	CRUISE
Sep 30, 2021	WAYMO

Collision Volumes

California requires that all autonomous vehicle manufacturers in the state report any collision event, regardless of the nature of such an event. These collisions include everything from minor damage due to road debris to at-fault collisions resulting in more significant damage. Generally, the larger the program, the greater the number of reported collisions.

• Waymo has added 14 new collisions to its total.
• Cruise has 12 more collisions.
• Apple has just 1 additional collision, which occurred June 14, 2022. In the collision, another vehicle bumped the rear of Apple’s vehicle, damaging a sensor. No injuries were reported.

Manufacturer	Collisions
WAYMO	209
CRUISE	195
ZOOX	59
APPLE	12
AURORA	4
WERIDE	4
ARGO	3
MOTIONAL	2
NISSAN	1
AIMOTIVE	1
TOYOTA	1

Previous coverage of Apple’s autonomous vehicle program

• March 2022: Apple Adds More Drivers to Its Autonomous Vehicle Program
• January 2022: Apple Adds 11 Drivers to Autonomous Fleet; Other Manufacturers See Changes
• November 2021: Apple Adds 23 More Drivers to its Autonomous Vehicle Fleet; Still no Driverless Permits; Crash Reports

Early autonomous vehicle coverage

• April 2019: Number of Apple’s Autonomous Cars Decreases For The First Time
• June 2018: More Apple Car Details: Apple’s Secret Team and Objective.de