Apple's object-detection software. Apple
An Apple autonomous vehicle got rear-ended last week, marking the first time one of its secretive self-driving cars was involved in an accident.
In a form filed with the Department of Motor Vehicles on August 24th, viewed by Business Insider on August 31, Apple revealed that one of its test vehicles was rear-ended while preparing to merge onto the freeway in Sunnyvale, California, about 3.5 miles away from Apple's Cupertino headquarters.
The car was in autonomous mode and driving less than 1 mile per hour while "waiting for a safe gap to complete the merge" when a 2016 Nissan Leaf hit it from behind, according to the filing. The Nissan was apparently going 15 miles per hour, according to the form. Both cars were damaged, but nobody got hurt.
As of May, Apple had 55 autonomous vehicles on the road in Californiaâ more than any other company besides Cruise, GM's autonomous vehicle arm, which had 104 cars at the time.
The accident was a first for Apple's autonomous car unit, and relatively minor compared to accidents that have occured with some of the company's competitors. Apple hasn't publicly discussed its plans for these self-driving cars, and most of what we know about them come from official filings with the DMV.
Uber shut down its self-driving car program in Arizona after one of its vehicles struck and killed a pedestrian there in March. Also in March, a Tesla Model X crashed into a barrier while in the semi-autonmous autopilot mode. The driver of the vehicle was killed in the collision.
Apple did not immediately respond to a request for comment.