So many Apple Cars on the road now (and so many accidents there were)
Apple is now conducting plenty of tests with self-driving cars. How many Apple Cars are currently on the road and how many accidents have already happened?
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Apple is working on its own car
According to rumors, Apple has been working on its own car for years, the Apple Car. Apple’s original plan was to make the car fully autonomous. The Apple Car wouldn’t even have a steering wheel or pedals in that case. This plan has since been adjusted: the car is now only self-driving on the highways. In this scenario, the car will of course have a steering wheel and pedals.
Also read: BMW is already coming up with an Apple Car competitor: this is what the car looks like
To make the car – even if only partially – autonomous, Apple carries out a lot of tests to ensure that the Apple Car can drive itself without any problems. Before that, autonomous cars from Apple are already driving around in California. How many cars are involved and how are Apple’s first tests with self-driving cars going?
There are now 67 Apple Cars on the road
There are currently 67 Apple Cars on the road in California. These cars are largely self-driving, but that doesn’t mean there’s no one in the Apple Car. According to Apple’s data, 201 drivers are authorized to drive such an ‘autonomous’ Apple Car. These drivers are always present in the car, so that they can intervene if things threaten to go wrong with an Apple Car.
There has been only one accident involving an Apple Car in the past year, bringing the total number of accidents involving an Apple Car to 16. An accident is a big word for the incident, in the ‘accident’ the rim of the Apple Car hit the curb. All incidents involving self-driving cars must be reported, including this ‘accident’.
An interesting detail here is that the pavement was hit in manual mode, so the incident happened by one of the 201 drivers. The question is of course whether this accident would also have happened if the Apple Car was driving itself. The chance is small that the car would also have hit the curb when parking autonomously.
Apple Car release date likely in 2026
Since the creation of Project Titan, the team of big names behind the Apple Car, there have been many rumors about the car’s release date. For a moment it looked like the autonomous Apple Car wouldn’t even make it to the finish line; the team that produces the car was temporarily disbanded. Last year, the team’s engine was restarted, so work is again being done on the futuristic car.
Also read: New version of CarPlay coming this year – this is what you can expect
As a result, there finally seems to be clarity about when the car will appear: the first design must be finished in 2024, so that it can be tested in 2025. The Apple Car will then be launched on the market in 2026. Whether these years are feasible this time remains to be seen, because the Apple Car has been postponed several times.
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