CA DMV filing: Apple's self-driving cars topped 18,800 test miles in 2020, up from 7,544 in 2019, with disengagements every 145 miles, up from every 118 miles
Context & Ripple Effects
Apple’s California program had already moved from a 27-vehicle test fleet in early 2018 to a 2019 filing that reported roughly one disengagement per mile. The new DMV data shows both substantially more on-road testing and a sharply lower intervention frequency, making it a measurable operational step rather than simply a fleet-permit expansion.
First-order effects
- Apple logged 18,800 California test miles in 2020, more than doubling its 2019 total, while its reported disengagement interval improved from 118 to 145 miles.
- CA DMV’s public filings give Apple a new performance datapoint against its own much higher 2019 disengagement rate.
Second-order effects
- The filing widens the disclosed gap with Waymo’s 2019 reported rate of roughly 11,017 miles between disengagements, keeping Apple’s test program under a far more demanding public benchmark.
- More miles and fewer reported interventions give Apple’s autonomous-vehicle team a larger body of California driving experience to assess as it iterates on the system.
Third-order effects
- California’s annual disclosure regime is becoming a durable scoreboard for autonomous-vehicle development: subsequent records show Apple’s program later reached about 452,000 test miles in 2023, while still trailing Waymo’s mileage.
- If testing scale and disengagement reporting remain central measures, autonomous-driving competition will favor companies able to sustain large permitted fleets and continuous real-world data collection.
The trend: Autonomous-vehicle development is increasingly being measured through the combination of on-road testing scale and regulator-mandated safety disclosures.