Companies with a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California—with a safety driver—reported their vehicles drove nearly 2.9 million miles on public roads during the most recent reporting period, according to reports submitted to the state Department of Motor Vehicles.

While the AMA recognizes the potential value of autonomous vehicles in increasing road safety for motorcyclists and other road users, allowing the testing of these vehicles on public roadways places the public in jeopardy and, in effect, makes human test subjects of riders, pedestrians and other drivers.

The 60 annual reports summarize the disengagements, which can occur when a failure of the technology is detected or when the safety driver needs to take control of the vehicle, reported during testing and reveal test vehicles traveled approximately 2.88 million miles in autonomous mode on California’s public roads during the reporting period—an increase of more than 800,000 miles from the previous reporting cycle.

The reports include the total number of disengagements, the circumstances or testing conditions, the location, and the total miles traveled in autonomous mode on public roads for each permit holder.

Twenty-four permit holders reported they did not test autonomous vehicles on California public roads.

Two companies failed to file the annual report, and they were subject to permit revocation following a 15-day written notice from the DMV, and the DMV revoked their testing permits.