AV Testing Makes Strides in California

Autonomous driving, either driverless or with a human safety driver in place, is still mostly confined to urban testing grounds on the U.S. West Coast. However, the number of permits issued for autonomous vehicle (AV) testing in California over the past two years is potential grounds for an expansion into other states. As data from the California Department of Motor Vehicles shows, 1,603 AVs were registered as test-ready in 2023, an increase of 430 cars or 37 percent compared to 2021. However, not all permits are issued equally.

The California DMV's Disengagement Reports for 2023 showed that 77 percent of all permits were issued to AVs run by three companies: Cruise, Waymo and Zoox, which had 510, 438 and 284 vehicles registered. These might not be household names for the uninitiated, but their parent companies should ring a bell. Cruise is backed by legacy automaker General Motors, Waymo and Zoox are subsidiaries of Alphabet and Amazon, respectively.

Other notable companies testing autonomous driving technologies in 2023 were Mercedes with 79 vehicles and Apple with 67 road-ready AVs. Nuro, a Californian start-up that cut 50 percent of its staff between November 2022 and May 2023, was also featured with 98 cars. Chinese AV pioneer AutoX, which became the second company to receive a testing permit for driverless cars in California in 2021, had 44 vehicles on Californian roads in 2023. Ride-hailing service Lyft had 23 permits in 2021. However, for the period covering December 2022 to November 2023, it didn't make use of said permits. Nvidia's small fleet of six cars in 2021 also makes no appearance in 2023 reports.

While some industry pundits see driverless cars as the future of urban transportation, critics cite safety concerns as a major roadblock to wider AV implementation. In October 2023, Cruise's permit for testing driverless cars was suspended indefinitely in San Francisco after an AV collided with a pedestrian and trapped her under the car, according to reporting by The Verge.

35 companies currently hold permits for testing robotaxis with human safety drivers, while only six companies, Apollo, AutoX, Nuro, Waymo, WeRide and Zoox, have permits to test driverless AVs on California's roads. Most of these driverless AVs are only allowed to be tested in specific regions like San Francisco, San Jose or Santa Clara. Waymo is the only company with permits to operate in Los Angeles County.