Apple Car quietly growing... driving range increased threefold

Apple's autonomous electric vehicle (EV), the Apple Car, is quietly growing, according to the Washington Post (WP) on the 6th (local time).

According to the WP report, from December 2022 to November last year, the Apple Car conducted a total of 450,000 miles (approximately 720,000 km) of test driving in California. This figure is more than three times higher than a year earlier.

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According to the California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV), a total of 38 companies have been authorized to test autonomous driving on California roads. Among them, the company with the longest test driving distance last year was Waymo, owned by Alphabet, recording a total of 4.8 million miles (approximately 7.72 million km). Following were Cruise, a subsidiary of General Motors (GM), with 2.6 million miles (approximately 4.18 million km), and Zoox, under Amazon, with 700,000 miles (approximately 1.12 million km).

Among these, Waymo and Cruise received permits in August last year to operate 24-hour robotaxi (driverless taxi) services in San Francisco, significantly expanding their businesses. However, Cruise faced intense regulatory scrutiny after a woman was seriously injured in an accident involving one of its robotaxis.

Unlike the driverless operations of Waymo and Cruise, Apple is testing autonomous driving with a driver on board, and no significant issues have been reported so far. WP noted, "While Cruise and Waymo have hesitated amid various regulations and public criticism over robotaxi safety issues, Apple appears to be quietly attempting aggressive business expansion."

However, Bloomberg reported last month that "Apple has postponed the launch of the Apple Car to 2028 and is developing it at a level that assists the driver's driving rather than full autonomy." Apple is reportedly refusing to comment on this matter.

Meanwhile, Ed Walters, a professor at Georgetown University, explained, "As companies increase their autonomous driving experiments, the likelihood of accidents will also rise, but the benefits brought by the technology are so great that it is difficult to slow down the pace of industry development." He added, "There will be a breakthrough in machine learning for autonomous vehicles in 2024."

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