Apple Self-Driving Car Needed a Realignment After Clipping Curb in Autonomous Mode

One of Apple's self-driving test vehicles was involved in a minor incident on September 27, according to a filing made with the California DMV [PDF].

applelexusselfdriving1
The self-driving vehicle, which was operating in autonomous mode at the time, clipped a curb while going 13 miles per hour. There was no damage reported, but the car did require a realignment.

A test vehicle, operating in autonomous mode in Sunnyvale and turning right from Mathilda Avenue onto Del Ray Avenue, made contact with a curb at approximately 13 miles per hour. While there was no tire or wheel damage, the contact resulted in misalignment. No other agents were involved, no injuries were reported, and law enforcement was not called to the scene.

The incident occurred when the vehicle was turning right from Mathilda Avenue onto Del Ray Avenue, a location that is right near Apple's Mathilda Avenue location.

Apple's self-driving vehicles have been involved in several very minor accidents, but most have been caused by other drivers and while not in autonomous mode. This is the second event that has occurred where an Apple vehicle was being operated in autonomous mode.

Apple has been testing its self-driving software since early 2017, using the aforementioned Lexus RX 450h vehicles outfitted with sensors and cameras in the area around its Cupertino campuses. The work on autonomous driving is part of Apple's longtime car project, and rumors suggest Apple is planning to release a vehicle in the mid to late 2020s.

Popular Stories

iPhone 17 Pro Blue Feature Tighter Crop

iPhone 17 Pro Launching in Three Months With These 12 New Features

Saturday June 14, 2025 5:45 pm PDT by
The iPhone 17 Pro and iPhone 17 Pro Max are three months away, and there are plenty of rumors about the devices. Below, we recap key changes rumored for the iPhone 17 Pro models as of June 2025:Aluminum frame: iPhone 17 Pro models are rumored to have an aluminum frame, whereas the iPhone 15 Pro and iPhone 16 Pro models have a titanium frame, and the iPhone X through iPhone 14 Pro have a...
apple watch ultra 2 new black

Apple Watch Ultra 3 Finally Coming After Two-Year Hiatus

Monday June 16, 2025 8:45 am PDT by
Apple will finally deliver the Apple Watch Ultra 3 sometime this year, according to analyst Jeff Pu of GF Securities Hong Kong (via @jukanlosreve). The analyst expects both the Apple Watch Series 11 and Apple Watch Ultra 3 to arrive this year (likely alongside the new iPhone 17 lineup, if previous launches are anything to go by), according to his latest product roadmap shared with...
Logitech Logo Feature

Logitech Announces Two New Accessories for WWDC

Friday June 13, 2025 7:22 am PDT by
Alongside WWDC this week, Logitech announced notable new accessories for the iPad and Apple Vision Pro. The Logitech Muse is a spatially-tracked stylus developed for use with the Apple Vision Pro. Introduced during the WWDC 2025 keynote address, Muse is intended to support the next generation of spatial computing workflows enabled by visionOS 26. The device incorporates six degrees of...
iPadOS 26 App Windowing

Apple Explains Why iPads Don't Just Run macOS

Friday June 13, 2025 7:46 am PDT by
iPadOS 26 allows iPads to function much more like Macs, with a new app windowing system, a swipe-down menu bar at the top of the screen, and more. However, Apple has stopped short of allowing iPads to run macOS, and it has now explained why. In an interview this week with Swiss tech journalist Rafael Zeier, Apple's software engineering chief Craig Federighi said that iPadOS 26's new Mac-like ...
iphone 16 pro models 1

17 Reasons to Wait for the iPhone 17

Thursday June 12, 2025 8:58 am PDT by
Apple's iPhone development roadmap runs several years into the future and the company is continually working with suppliers on several successive iPhone models simultaneously, which is why we often get rumored features months ahead of launch. The iPhone 17 series is no different, and we already have a good idea of what to expect from Apple's 2025 smartphone lineup. If you skipped the iPhone...
terminal macos tahoe

Apple's Terminal App Gets Colorful Redesign in macOS Tahoe

Monday June 16, 2025 4:12 am PDT by
Apple's Terminal app is getting a visual refresh in macOS Tahoe, and it's the first notable design update since the command-line tool debuted. The updated Terminal will support 24-bit color and Powerline fonts, according to Apple's State of the Platforms presentation at WWDC25. The app will also adopt the new Liquid Glass aesthetic with redesigned themes that align with macOS 26's broader...
apple watch ultra snow

6 Features Coming to the Apple Watch Ultra 3

Tuesday February 25, 2025 9:00 am PST by
The Apple Watch Ultra 3 is expected to launch later this year, arriving two years after the previous model with a series of improvements. While no noticeable design changes are expected for the third generation since the company tends to stick with the same Apple Watch design through three generations before changing it, there are a series of internal upgrades on the way. By the time the ...
iOS 26 Feature

Apple Seeds Revised iOS 26 Developer Beta to Fix Battery Issue

Friday June 13, 2025 10:15 am PDT by
Apple today provided developers with a revised version of the first iOS 26 beta for testing purposes. The update is only available for the iPhone 15 and iPhone 16 models, so if you're running iOS 26 on an iPhone 14 or earlier, you won't see the revised beta. Registered developers can download the new beta software through the Settings app on each device. The revised beta addresses an...

Top Rated Comments

KurtWilde Avatar
48 months ago
something no driver operated car has ever done
Score: 18 Votes (Like | Disagree)
dannyyankou Avatar
48 months ago

But people do it all the time
But these are the types of things autonomous vehicles are supposed to fix
Score: 16 Votes (Like | Disagree)
davidjschloss Avatar
48 months ago

Imagine if there was a kid there.
It said it hit the curb, not that it jumped the curb. It also clearly misidentified the curb, there's no indication that if a person was there the system would't have seen that.

But in any case, you can't what if this. What if it wasn't an Apple car but a distracted driver?

I'm too lazy to look up the data for car v pedestrian injuries per vehicle mile, or even a guess for how often someone hits a curb where someone *might* be, but my town just installed a traffic calming island near a school so it's safer for pedestrians to cross in front of human drivers. So no matter the scenario, autonomous cars are going to be safer than human-driven ones.
Score: 11 Votes (Like | Disagree)
cpragman Avatar
48 months ago
My car needed an alignment after sliding into a curb at low speed on an icy day. Why is this news?
Score: 10 Votes (Like | Disagree)
KurtWilde Avatar
48 months ago

Even though it's an incredibly minor incident, hitting the curb seems like something that should be very easy to avoid.
But people do it all the time
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)
nvmls Avatar
48 months ago
Still better than humans interacting with phones while driving.
Score: 8 Votes (Like | Disagree)