The California Department of Motor Vehicles (DMV) has tested autonomous vehicles (AVs) for 11 years and has published annual testing data since 2015. On Feb. 20, 2026, it released its 2025 report, showing that vehicles with testing permits collectively covered more than 9 million miles on public roads between Dec. 1, 2024, and Nov. 30, 2025—a sharp increase from 2024. This figure excludes robotaxi operational mileage, which is reported separately by the California Public Utilities Commission.
The California DMV data is the primary publicly available source for evaluating the performance of the various AV companies. The data includes the following information:
- 12 months of data, from December 2024 through November 2025
- Company name of all participants
- Number of AV permits and how many AVs were used
- Monthly AV miles traveled for each AV and 12-month total
- Disengagement data for all AVs by date, company, vehicle ID, and other information. A disengagement occurs when the driving tasks shift from the AV software to the safety driver. The disengagement is initiated by the safety driver, triggered by the AV software driver or, in rare cases, caused by equipment related issues.
- From 2015 to 2019, all AVs operated with safety drivers, referred to as “drivered.” In 2020, driverless permits were issued, and driverless AV data became available in 2021. In this case, disengagements occur only due to hardware and software issues. Few driverless AV disengagements are reported.
This article summarizes the 2025 data, along with an 11-year trend analysis covering 2015 to 2025, and offers perspectives on the observed developments.
2025 AV data
The 2025 drivered data includes 18 companies, with no new entrants compared with the previous year. AutoX has rebranded as Tensor Auto. A summary of the drivered data is presented in the table below.
In 2025, the total drivered AV miles rose to 4.88 million, up from 3.94 million in 2024, representing a 24% increase. Testing was conducted by only 18 companies using 470 AVs, while nearly 2,400 permits were available. Waymo had 2,097 AV permits available but used only 236 for its drivered testing in California.
Total disengagement was less than 9,300, a significant decrease from 28,800 in 2024. The 67% decrease is largely attributable to the absence of new AV testing companies. New entrants often underestimate the challenges of AV testing. Beep, for example, experienced difficulties in its third year and accounted for over 84% of disengagements, with only 0.12% of AV miles.
Waymo accounted for over 68% of vehicle miles traveled (VMT), followed by Zoox, with nearly 25% of drivered miles. Nuro was a distant third, with 3.2% of total VMT. The remaining 15 companies collectively contributed less than 3.4% of drivered VMT in 2025.
The table below presents driverless AV testing data from 2022 to 2025. Only five companies hold active permits for driverless AV testing: three U.S. companies and two subsidiaries of Chinese AV companies. Data for Cruise is included in the table, as it was a leading driverless company in 2022–2023.
Waymo is now the overwhelming leader, with nearly 3.9 million driverless miles in 2025, or 7.5× more than its 2024 total. Waymo’s driverless AV permits grew from 1,030 in 2024 to 1,949 in 2025, while the number of vehicles deployed increased from 813 to 1,757 over the same period.
Zoox started its driverless AV testing in 2023 with just over 11,000 miles, expanding to more than 312,000 miles by 2025. The company deployed 32 AVs in 2024.
Chinese AV players entered strongly in 2021, when Baidu Apollo, Pony.ai, and WeRide together accounted for 74% of roughly 25,000 driverless miles. The Chinese driverless VMT share dropped each year, with only WeRide testing driverless AVs in 2024 and 2025, with less than 1,800 miles in 2025, or 0.5% of total driverless VMT.
AV testing trends
The California DMV has published AV testing data since 2015. The number of companies participating has fluctuated over time, rising from just seven companies in 2015 to a peak of 36 in 2019, before declining to 23 in 2023 and further to 18 in 2025. These figures include only companies actively operating under drivered AV permits.
Drivered VMT testing depends on two factors:
- New AV companies obtaining testing permits and/or existing companies expanding their testing. Few new entrants have emerged recently, and none in 2025. Waymo, Zoox, and Nuro are leading the expansion of drivered testing. Tensor Auto, May Mobility, Pony.ai, and WeRide may expand in future years.
- The expansion of driverless AV deployments needs initial drivered testing in new areas. This phase is now a key focus for Waymo in California. Other companies may reach this stage in 2026 or 2027, with Zoox as a likely next entrant.
The following table summarizes drivered data from all companies filing annual reports. AV test miles grew from 451,000 in 2015 to a peak of 5.8 million in 2023. VMT declined to 3.9 million in 2024 before increasing 24% to nearly 4.9 million in 2025. Cumulative drivered AV test miles topped 32.4 million miles in 2025.
If AV companies want to compete with Waymo’s robotaxi service in California, they have to start with drivered testing. It is possible that Tesla will enter this category in 2026 or 2027.
Total disengagements, shown in the third row of the table, need an explanation, as a few companies have very high disengagement rates and limited AV miles. This greatly lowers the average miles-per-disengagement rates. To account for this effect, disengagement data from four companies has been subtracted in years when they account for a large share of total disengagements. These include Apple and Uber in 2018; Apple in 2022 and 2023; Beep and May Mobility in 2024; and Beep in 2023 and 2025. Row 5 shows the disengagement share for one or two of these companies, as they impacted miles per disengagement.
In 2018, Apple and Uber reported extremely high numbers of disengagements, accounting for about 97% of the total despite, representing only about 5% of AV miles. This skewed the metric, reducing miles per disengagement to just 14 in 2018, compared with 226 in 2017 and 308 in 2019. Apple also had its highest disengagement share in 2022, when it accounted for 71% of all disengagements and 2.7% of AV miles. In 2023, Apple had the highest number of disengagements at over 34% of the total, versus 7.7% of total miles. A comparable effect appeared in 2024, when Beep and May Mobility together accounted for over 93% of disengagements while contributing less than 1% of total miles. In 2025, Beep accounted for nearly 85% of all disengagements, while May Mobility made significant improvements.
The last row shows the impact on average miles per disengagement when data from Apple, Uber, Beep, and May Mobility are excluded in years when their disengagement rates were disproportionately high.
The following figure shows the two disengagement trends listed in the above table. The left bars show average miles per disengagement for all participants, while the right bars adjust the metric by removing one or two companies in years when their disengagement figures are excessive.
The right bars show a clear upward trend in miles per disengagement over time, while the left bars show little improvement, as one or two companies skew the average miles per disengagement in multiple years.
Leading companies
Over 80 companies have tested AVs with safety drivers in California since 2015. As of February 2026, 30 companies hold permits for drivered testing, but only 18 companies provided drivered data in 2025. Five companies have permits for driverless testing, with four companies submitting data in 2025.
The next table ranks the top companies by cumulative AV miles since 2015. Only Waymo and Mercedes-Benz have tested AVs for all 11 years. The table lists companies with over 100,000 miles.
Waymo is the clear leader, with 19.4 million miles of the 32.4 million cumulative miles—a share of nearly 60%. Cruise ranks second, with over 4.5 million drivered miles, or 13.9% of the total. Zoox has expanded rapidly since 2022, adding 1.2 million miles in 2025 to reach nearly 3.8 million cumulative miles, and is expected to surpass Cruise in 2026.
Pony.ai ranks fourth, with more than 1.21 million miles, representing 3.7% of the total and leading among Chinese AV developers. As a group, Chinese companies have driven 1.83 million miles, or 5.6% of all drivered AV miles.
Apple holds fifth place, with 850,000 AV miles, but also reports the most disengagements, exceeding 79,800. The company ended its AV testing program in February 2024.
Nuro had good years in 2024 and 2025, with 210,500 and 157,600 AV miles, respectively, bringing its cumulative total to 775,000 miles in 2025.
WeRide ranks seventh, with nearly 300,000 cumulative drivered miles. Mercedes-Benz ranks eighth in AV miles, with 274,000, making it the leading European OEM in California testing. Its activity started slowly with few miles in the first five years but has increased significantly in recent years.
Two additional Chinese AV companies are in 10th, and 11th place in California.
Disengagement data
The disengagement rate is an important number to assess the progress of AV companies because it is the primary public-safety-related data point reported on a regular basis. The next table shows historical data for 10 AV companies, ranked on cumulative miles per disengagements. In some years, there were companies with no disengagements, which means the miles per disengagement cannot be calculated.
It is interesting that Argo.ai tops the list based on strong performance over 2020–2022, despite shutting down in 2022.
Zoox ranks second in miles per disengagement and has participated for nine years. Zoox had the highest miles per disengagement in 2023, at over 177,000, a significant improvement over the 2017–2022 period. Although its miles per disengagement have declined in recent years, it remained strong, at over 60,000 in 2025, when the company drove over 1.2 million miles.
Four Chinese AV companies rank in the top 10, led by Pony.ai in third place. While they report strong miles-per-disengagement figures, their annual mileage remains lower than that of Waymo. Chinese companies are also behind Cruise and Zoox in AV miles, with Pony.ai having 32% of Zoox’s cumulative AV miles.
Waymo ranks fourth in cumulative miles per disengagement, at over 10,400 miles. It led the metric consistently from 2015 through 2020.
Waymo vs. competitors
Waymo and Cruise were the leaders in AV testing in California, accounting for over 80% of the 27.5 million miles driven through 2023—including both drivered and driverless AV miles. Waymo contributed over 54% of those miles, while Cruise accounted for nearly 26%.
With Cruise ending its AV testing, Zoox has become Waymo’s primary challenger, with Nuro emerging. The following figure shows key data points for Waymo, Zoox, Nuro, and Cruise: drivered AV miles, driverless AV miles, and total AV miles. Nuro currently participates only in the drivered segment.
Waymo has been the leader in drivered AV miles every year except 2020. When the pandemic came, Cruise was able to continue its AV testing by delivering pandemic-related goods for many organizations in San Francisco. Zoox surpassed Cruise in drivered miles in 2023 but remains far behind Waymo.
In driverless AV miles, Cruise led with over 2 million miles in 2023 and remained ahead in cumulative driverless miles, exceeding 2.6 million miles through 2024, with no additional miles recorded that year. Cruise accounted for over 58% of cumulative driverless miles in 2024, a share that dropped to 30% in 2025.
Waymo had a slower start in driverless miles but grew dramatically in 2023, reaching nearly 1.2 million miles in 2023, adding 517,000 miles in 2024, and expanding to nearly 3.9 million miles in 2025. Waymo’s cumulative driverless miles topped 5.6 million, or 65% of all driverless miles in 2025.
In total AV miles, Waymo leads, as shown in the right section of the figure. Waymo covered over 4.8 million miles in 2023, followed by a dip to just over 2.9 million in 2024, before reaching a record 7.2 million miles in 2025, or nearly 80% of total miles.
Zoox has steadily increased its total AV mileage, approaching 1 million miles in 2024 and surpassing 1.5 million miles in 2025. Its cumulative total exceeded 4.1 million miles by 2025.
Summary
The California DMV has provided 11 years of AV testing data for drivered AVs and five years of driverless data. It is the most publicly available AV data and is followed closely by many organizations. Currently, 30 companies have permits for AV testing with safety drivers, while five companies have permits for driverless AV testing. As of Nov. 21, 2025, the California DMV has granted three deployment permits: Mercedes-Benz, Nuro, and Waymo. Of these three companies, only Waymo holds a permit from the California Public Utilities Commission to operate an AV service.
The following figure summarizes yearly VMT on the left and cumulative miles on the right, covering all AV companies and Waymo. Both drivered and driverless miles are included. Yearly drivered miles increased from 451,000 in 2015 to a peak of 5.86 million in 2023, before declining to 3.94 million in 2024 and recovering to 4.88 million in 2025.
Waymo’s drivered miles rose from 424,000 in 2015 to 2.9 million in 2022, reaching 3.35 million in 2025—more than 68% of all drivered miles.
Driverless VMT began at just 25,000 miles in 2021, its first year, and expanded rapidly in 2022 and 2023, largely driven by Cruise, surpassing 3.2 million miles. In 2024, Cruise stopped its AV testing and driverless VMT dropped to 550,000 miles. In 2025, total driverless VMT rebounded to nearly 4.2 million miles.
Waymo was behind Cruise in driverless miles in 2022 and 2023 but became the leader after Cruise ended its testing in 2024. In 2025, Waymo recorded its highest driverless VMT, at 3.88 million miles, accounting for about 92% of the total.
Cumulative miles have increased rapidly across both drivered and driverless miles. Cumulative drivered VMT started with 0.45 million in 2015, topped 8.5 million in 2020, and reached 32.4 million in 2025.
Waymo’s cumulative drivered miles started at 424,000 in 2015 and reached nearly 10 million in 2022. Waymo nearly doubled its cumulative drivered VMT over the past three years and reached 19.4 million in 2025.
Driverless VMT was nearly 0.65 million in 2022 and surpassed 8.66 million in 2025. Waymo accounted for nearly all of the growth in 2025, reflecting its multi-city testing efforts in California, as it prepares for broader robotaxi deployment. This trajectory is likely to continue into 2026.
Waymo’s driverless mileage was only 52,000 in 2022 but jumped to 1.76 million in 2024. In 2025, Waymo added 3.88 million driverless miles and topped 5.6 million cumulative miles.
The next figure shows VMT market share trends and gives perspectives on Waymo’s dominance in AV testing in California. Cruise has faded away, with Zoox increasing its milage share. Chinese AV companies are grouped into an “others” category alongside remaining participants. Driverless AV miles are included in the 2021–2025 dataset.
In 2015 and 2016, Waymo was overwhelmingly dominant, accounting for 94% and 96% of total miles, respectively. It has consistently represented more than 50% of annual AV miles each year, except for 2020. Cruise emerged as a significant competitor in 2017, remained second in overall AV miles for most years, and briefly led in 2020. It ended AV testing in 2024.
Zoox became visible in 2019 with a share above 2%, rising to nearly 10% in 2022 and exceeding 21% in 2024. Although Zoox increased its mileage by more than 54% in 2025, its share declined to 13% as Waymo expanded its VMT by nearly 150% that year.
The subsidiaries of the Chinese companies made an impact in 2018 with a 3.4% share of AV miles, which peaked in 2020 at 13%. Their share has declined to about 1% of total miles in 2025, with annual mileage falling from 437,000 miles in 2021 to 93,000 miles in 2025.
The “others” category includes a variety of other companies, such as AiMotive, Beep, Gatik, Imagry, May Mobility, Mercedes-Benz, Motional, Nissan, and Nuro, as well as companies that have stopped AV testing, such as Argo.ai, Apple, Lyft, and Uber.
Waymo has accounted for about 61% of the cumulative 41 million miles driven over the past 11 years. This includes driverless miles. Cruise represents about 17% of total AV miles, despite limited miles added in 2024 and none in 2025. Zoox is now the second-most-important company in AV testing in California, with over 9% of total AV miles.
Testing with drivered AVs depends on two factors:
- The entry of new companies obtaining testing permits, along with the expansion of testing by existing players
- The rollout of robotaxi services in new areas, which requires drivered testing to build experience before operations begin
California remains the central reference point for AV testing and early deployment. Tracking and analyzing data from the California DMV and the California Public Utilities Commission, which authorize and monitor VMT for commercial AV operations, provides important insight into industry development and deployment trends.
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