Apple's fleet of self-driving vehicles roaming the streets of California for testing now includes 69 vehicles and 92 drivers, according to information from the California Department of Motor Vehicles obtained by macReports.
This means that Apple has added one self-driving car and 16 drivers since May this year. Apple has been expanding its autonomous vehicle test since it was granted a permit from the California DMV in April 2017, enabling it to test its self-driving technology on public roads in the state. Beginning in early 2018, multiple sources reported on the number of vehicles in Apple's fleet, which steadily expanded throughout that year.
Each of Apple's testing vehicles is equipped with the company's in-development autonomous driving software, along with advanced LiDAR equipment and an array of cameras to detect the vehicle's surroundings. The actual cars are Lexus RX450h sports utility vehicles and must have safety drivers inside of them, since, unlike rival companies that are self-driving technology, Apple's permit still does not include driverless testing.
Apple's fleet of self-driving vehicles are reportedly gathering data for the company's long-rumored autonomous vehicle software. In June of 2017 Apple CEO Tim Cookconfirmed Apple's work on autonomous software: "We're focusing on autonomous systems. It's a core technology that we view as very important. We sort of see it as the mother of all AI projects... it's probably one of the most difficult AI projects to actually work on."
Earlier this year, it was revealed that Apple had more than doubled its self-driving mileage in 2020, reaching a total of 18,805 miles, up from the 7,544 miles the previous year. There were a total of 130 disengagements in 2020, up from 64 in 2019, but Apple's cars experienced a disengagement every 144.6 miles, which is a better metric than the previous year where there was a disengagement every 117.8 miles, indicating an improvement in the technology.
Wednesday October 29, 2025 4:22 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple is about to drop iOS 26.1, the first major point release since iOS 26 was rolled out in September, and there are at least six notable changes and improvements to look forward to. We've rounded them up below.
Apple has already provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate version of iOS 26.1, which means Apple will likely roll out the update to all compatible...
Friday October 31, 2025 1:40 pm PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a small but helpful change for iPhones, and it could prevent you from running late to something important.
Specifically, when an alarm goes off in the Clock app, there is a new "slide to stop" control on the screen for turning off the alarm. On previous iOS 26 versions, there is simply a large "stop" button, which could be accidentally tapped.
The new ...
Monday October 27, 2025 7:55 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
The upcoming iOS 26.1 update includes a handful of new features and changes for iPhones, including a toggle for changing the appearance of the Liquid Glass design, "slide to stop" for alarms in the Clock app, and more.
Below, we outline key details about iOS 26.1.
Release Date
Given that Apple has yet to seed an iOS 26.1 Release Candidate, which is typically the final beta version, the...
Friday October 31, 2025 7:32 am PDT by Joe Rossignol
Apple has just given a strong indication that it will not be releasing any additional new Macs for the remainder of the year.
Apple's CFO Kevan Parekh dropped the hint during the company's earnings call on Thursday:On Mac, keep in mind, we expect to face a very difficult compare against the M4 MacBook Pro, Mac mini, and iMac launches in the year-ago quarter.Parekh essentially gave a heads up ...
Thursday October 30, 2025 4:42 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models at the same time, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 18 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect for the iPhone 18 Pro and iPhone 18 Pro Max.
One thing worth...
Monday October 27, 2025 4:51 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple is designing an updated version of the Apple TV 4K, and rumors suggest that it could come out sometime in the next couple of months. We're not expecting a major overhaul with design changes, but even a simple chip upgrade will bring major improvements to Apple's set-top box.
Subscribe to the MacRumors YouTube channel for more videos.
We've rounded up all the latest Apple TV rumors.
...
Wednesday October 29, 2025 7:13 am PDT by Tim Hardwick
Rumors are stoking excitement for the next-generation iPad mini that Apple is reportedly close to launching. So what should we expect from the successor to the iPad mini 7 that Apple released over a year ago? Read on to find out.
Processor and Performance
Apple is working on a next-generation version of the iPad mini (codename J510/J511) that features the A19 Pro chip, according to...
Tuesday October 28, 2025 1:07 pm PDT by Juli Clover
Apple today provided developers and public beta testers with the release candidate versions of upcoming iOS 26.1, iPadOS 26.1, macOS Tahoe 26.1, tvOS 26.1, watchOS 26.1, and visionOS 26.1 updates for testing purposes. The RCs betas come a week after Apple released the fourth betas.
The new betas can be downloaded from the Settings app on a compatible device by going to General > Software...
Apple launched the Apple TV HD, the Siri Remote, tvOS, and their accompanying App Store a decade ago today, marking a major overhaul of the device.
The new vision for the Apple TV was unveiled on September 9, 2015 during Apple's "Hey Siri" event in San Francisco, where CEO Tim Cook introduced the device with the statement, "The future of TV is apps." The announcement represented a major...
Tesla should open source all their 3D maps, AI data and self driving algorithms.
Their first mover advantage based on having already countless cars on the road gathering data is a de facto tax on the self driving space, thus stifling innovation.
can't be hard to beat tesla. their FSD has turned out to be garbage. elon's smokescreen is lifting away.
An issue with your thesis is that Tesla is the undisputed leader in FSD that's in the hands of non-employees right now.
There's Waymo's little 100 square mile beta, Tesla's national beta with 5K vehicles, and then nobody else.
Then there's widely released autonomy software. Tesla pretty handily leads there with 1M+ vehicles and I don't think anybody is even bothering to try saying they're in the same league as Tesla anymore (GM's Supercruise, Ford's Blue whatever, Nissan Pro-Pilot, and Audi Jam Assist)... they all used to say that they had something, and then it turned out that nobody could match Tesla's first iteration of Autopilot from 2014, nevermind what they're doing today.
Tesla should open source their proprietary software, which they’ve been working on for a decade? Is this a joke? They have a first mover advantage because they entered this space earlier and better and more decisively than any of their competitors. Now other companies get to play catch up. Next time maybe they’ll innovate sooner.
Kinda like sparking a multi-billion dollars app ecosystem in 2008, constantly providing the best hardware and OS updates afterwards to run apps on a pleasant&fast&safe spending-inducing platform and then asking an industry-standard 30% cut on the apps proceeds? I get it, now that I think about it.
An issue with your thesis is that Tesla is the undisputed leader in FSD that's in the hands of non-employees right now.
There's Waymo's little 100 square mile beta, Tesla's national beta with 5K vehicles, and then nobody else.
Then there's widely released autonomy software. Tesla pretty handily leads there with 1M+ vehicles and I don't think anybody is even bothering to try saying they're in the same league as Tesla anymore (GM's Supercruise, Ford's Blue whatever, Nissan Pro-Pilot, and Audi Jam Assist)... they all used to say that they had something, and then it turned out that nobody could match Tesla's first iteration of Autopilot from 2014, nevermind what they're doing today.
Tesla is claiming it's in a league all it's own. GM Super Cruise is most definitely as advanced as Tesla.
Tesla is level 2 autonomous, no matter what Elon says. The "full self driving" is a farce.
There are no level 4 or level 5 autonomous systems out there.
