Apple is continuing to slowly expand its self-driving car testing program in California. According to new data released by the California Department of Motor Vehicles, Apple’s fleet is now welcoming 15 newly registered drivers. Yet the number of self-driving cars remains unchanged at 69.
Apple’s self-driving vehicle efforts in California have waned and subsided over the years, as documented by macReports. The number of drivers has changed several times over the years, with Apple’s team approaching 200 staff at one point and then dropping. Yet Apple has maintained 69 self-driving cars for quite some time.
Currently, Apple has 180 drivers. In the past June report, Apple had 165 drivers. As a comparison, Waymo has 1,057 registered drivers and a fleet size of 285 — although that’s also a lot less than its previous figure.
It’s important to remember that Apple isn’t testing its own self-driving cars in California. Instead, it’s testing a Lexus SUV with LiDAR, radar and camera hardware.
Apple’s plans for its Project Titan self-driving car have evolved over the years. At the end of 2021, Kevin Lynch, the company’s vice president of technology, reportedly took over the project after Doug Field left. Before leaving Ford, Field had been leading the day-to-day work for Project Time, with a team of hundreds of engineers.
Apple is said to be weighing many different options for Project Titan, but its ambitious goal is to ship a self-driving electric car without a steering wheel by 2025. Now, the company is working to form a new team to run the project.
