Apple's Self-Driving Vehicle Rear-Ended on Public Road

One of Apple’s autonomous vehicles was struck from behind by a Nissan Leaf during an autonomous driving test in Santa Clara, Calif., on Aug. 24, reports CNBC. The company said that this was the first autonomous vehicle crash to date among its growing fleet.

The collision occurred when the Apple test vehicle (a Lexus midsize SUV) — moving at less than one mile per hour in autonomous mode — prepared to merge onto the Lawrence Expressway, according to a report by ZDnet.com. While the vehicle was waiting for a safe opening, the Nissan Leaf that was traveling at approximately 15 mph hit it from behind.

There were no injuries, but both vehicles suffered damage, according to reports.

Apple received permission to test its self-driving vehicles on California’s public roads in 2017. Currently, the company has 66 autonomous vehicles approved for testing in the state.

Data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles indicates that the Apple crash was the 95th autonomous vehicle collision report it received in 2018 — up from 30 incident reports in 2017.

Additional crashes involved vehicles owned by Alphabet's Waymo, Google, Toyota, and General Motors.