An Apple Inc. self-driving vehicle was involved in an accident, according to an accident report by the company on Friday.
The car, a Lexus RX 450h self-driving test vehicle in “autonomous mode”, was rear-ended on the Lawrence Expressway in Sunnyvale, California at about 3pm on Aug. 24 by a human driver.
According to the report posted on the California Department of Motor Vehicles website, “The Apple test vehicle was travelling less than 1mph waiting for a safe gap to complete the merge when a 2016 Nissan Leaf contacted the Apple test vehicle at approximately 15mph.
Both vehicles sustained damage and no injuries were reported by either party.
An Apple spokesman confirmed that the company had filed the report; understood to be the company’s first but did not comment further.
According to Reuters, Apple has never publicly spoken about the company’s self-driving car program, but filings in a criminal court case last month confirmed that the company had at least 5,000 employees working on the project and that it was working on circuit boards and a “proprietary chip” related to self-driving cars.
By: ClaraDoku/techvoiceafrica.com
