Even Apple’s self-driving car safety report is super secretive

Apple’s autonomous car program is as secretive as ever. 

Compare the seven-page safety report Apple submitted to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration this week to the 43-page color explosion from Waymo, the self-driving car startup from Google parent company Alphabet. 

Both talk about each companies’ safety practices and guiding principles when it comes to self-driving vehicles, but only one (guess which one) keeps it brief and vague. Other companies like Ford, GM’s Cruise, and Nuro also share additional details and include charts, vehicle pictures, and images of — wait for it — people. 

Some companies even link out to websites where safety information is openly kept. You won’t find anything official on an Apple site about self-driving cars, unless this January’s autonomous systems software engineer job listing counts.

It’s a voluntary submission to the federal regulator, as the Verge explains, but this just whets our appetite for more information. After hearing about Apple job reshuffling, high disengagement rates (how often humans have to take over the computer), and some trade secrets about Project Titan (as the Apple car project is known) allegedly stolen for a Chinese autonomous vehicle company, it’s hard to grasp where Apple is at with self-driving cars.

But they appear to be pushing through and are at least going through the motions.

Back to the safety report, most striking is the lack of images of any kind from Apple. We know from its recent disengagement report in California that it’s testing modified Lexus RX 450h cars, but we don’t get to see what these vehicles look like or what type of equipment they’re using for sensors and more. Meanwhile Waymo’s front page puts its self-driving Chrysler Pacifica minivan front and center. 

Apple does explain its real road and simulation testing, operator system, and daily safety meetings. Additional, we now know there are two people in all of its cars during testing. Cell phone use is only allowed in parked cars. We also get more details on its training program. But that’s pretty much it. 

In the introduction, Apple talks about “automated systems” in general and how they see autonomous vehicles helping humans. But it never goes as far to share any plans for a commercial car service.

The report says, “We are investing heavily in the study of machine learning and automation, and we are excited about the potential of automated systems in many areas, including transportation.”

Tight-lipped Apple isn’t sharing anything more than necessary.