Apple's self-driving test vehicles involved in two minor collisions in August

AppleInsider

Two cars in Apple's fleet of self-driving vehicles were involved in minor accidents in August while driving on California roads, though neither was the fault of autonomous systems being tested.

Credit: MacRumors

The accidents were reported by the California Department of Motor Vehicles and later spotted by MacRumors. Both collisions were described as minor and no injuries were reported.

On Aug. 19, an Apple Lexus RX 450h was stuck in traffic in the Hillcrest neighborhood of San Diego when it was hit by a Hyundai. A second collision occurred on Aug. 23 in Cupertino. Apple's vehicle was also stopped in traffic when a Subaru Outback rear-ended it.

In both cases, the Apple self-driving vehicle was in manual mode -- meaning that the autonomous system wasn't activated. It's also worth noting that neither collision was the fault of the driver of the Apple vehicle.

Apple and other companies testing self-driving vehicles on California roads are required to report collisions, as well as disengagements, or the times that a human driver needs to take over control of a vehicle. The two collisions in August mark the first time since September 2019 that Apple has reported an accident.

Back in August, a report indicated that Apple had expanded its self-driving car fleet. That came a few months after a similar expansion in May.

Throughout 2020, Apple's self-driving car fleet also doubled the amount of road testing miles compared to 2019. Despite the additional testing, Apple's fleet reported fewer disengagements in 2020 than the previous year.

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mobird

I guess South Korean manufactured cars don't like Apple Car...

shamino

Pure clickbait.  The cars were running in manual mode (meaning there's nothing autonomous going on) and they were struck while standing still.

The only thing this has to do with Apple is that Apple owned the cars.

applguy

mobird said:

I guess South Korean manufactured cars don't like Apple Car...

Except Subaru is Japanese and the North American Outback is made in Indiana. 

timmillea

I think the Car will be Apple's undoing. The immediate trajectory is towards walking, cycling, public transport, work at home, home deliveries and occasional taxi/minibus on demand. Cars will eventually be either priced or legislated off the road. Apple is blindsided by the US culture of cars.

lkrupp

I think readers are finally realizing that headlines are intentionally crafted to draw them in, only to find the actual article has nothing to do with the implications of the headline. This headline suckers the reader in with a clever implication that Apple’s car technology is faulty and causes accidents. Then we find out that nothing of the sort happened. Both vehicles were stopped and struck by human controlled cars. Wow, the headline didn’t say that.

Yes, the regulations require that any accident involving an autonomous vehicle be reported. But why not say that in the headline?

tht

Feel sad that this news indicates Apple is not implementing automatic defense systems for their car. Like a glue gun that will glue the offending car to the ground before it crashes in the car, or a hover mode to avoid the offending car altogether, or a lowly low tech deployable cattle guard. Lasers strong to slice the offending car in apart would be the best! Or so the joke goes...

Eventually, automated vehicle to vehicle proximity systems can have a vehicle's computer automatically slow down and prevent a crash. Pings for all.

byronl

timmillea said:

I think the Car will be Apple's undoing. The immediate trajectory is towards walking, cycling, public transport, work at home, home deliveries and occasional taxi/minibus on demand. Cars will eventually be either priced or legislated off the road. Apple is blindsided by the US culture of cars.

how do you know the apple car isn’t a robotaxi project?

igorsky

timmillea said:

I think the Car will be Apple's undoing. The immediate trajectory is towards walking, cycling, public transport, work at home, home deliveries and occasional taxi/minibus on demand. Cars will eventually be either priced or legislated off the road. Apple is blindsided by the US culture of cars.

Go ahead and short the stock...good luck.  Apple's been "undoing" for a decade now.