What you need to know
- Apple currently has 69 self-driving cars in its stable.
- 148 people are now registered to test Apple's self-driving cars in California.
- The cars are testing Apple's self-driving technology but not an actual car.
Apple has expanded the team of people that are testing its self-driving cars on the streets of California. However, don't expect cars with glaring Apple logos on them — these are boring Lexus vehicles that have Apple's self-driving technology strapped to the roof.
As disappointing as that might be to some, it's one step towards Apple being able to produce a car that can in the future drive itself just fine. Apple and other companies register drivers to test their technology on real roads and Apple has increased the team that can do exactly that. According to macReports, that team now stands at 148 people. The number of cars being tested remains just 69, however.
A future Apple Car is something that we've been hearing so much about for a long, long time at this point. It still isn't clear whether Apple will ever ship a car with its logo on or if we can expect Apple's self-driving technology to make an appearance in a car built by someone else. For either to happen, these self-driving tests need to take place and that's why more drivers are being lined up.
The Apple Car project hasn't been a smooth one for Apple and it recently lost another executive, this time to Meta. Despite that, some reports have Apple aiming to get wheels on the road by 2025 — a timescale that may or may not prove to be too short.
