A prototype autonomous vehicle manufactured by Apple Inc. crashed with a Nissan Leaf in California on August 24, according to a California Department of Motor Vehicles filing, Sputnik reported.
According to the filing, the test vehicle was moving in its autonomous, or self-piloting, mode and was about to enter an expressway before it was rear-ended by a driver in one of Nissan's fully-electric Leaf cars, the budget alternative to Tesla.
The Apple car was reportedly travelling slower than 1 mile per hour, while the Leaf was moving at about 15 miles per hour, the filing says.
Both vehicles were damaged, but no injuries were reported.
Apple announced its intention to develop its own self-driving car back in 2017. Since then, the company has remained secretive about its research, 2025ad.com reports. However, the company filed a patent recently, which reportedly drops hints that the vehicle, unlike its competitors, is supposed to warn its driver/passenger of its next action in advance.
Self-driving automobiles getting into accidents are hardly earth-shattering. In 2017, an autonomous bus with passengers aboard was hit by a human-driven truck; the bus had not been programmed to move in reverse in order to avoid collisions, and the truck driver apparently did not expect the brave computer bus to be that stubborn, so they didn't bother to change their course. Thankfully, no one was injured in that incident.
However, in March 2018, an self-driving car belonging to Uber killed a pedestrian, marking a dark milestone as the first fatal incident involving a self-piloted vehicle.
In May 2018, a Waymo minivan was involved in a car crash that caused minor injuries
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