Autonomous vehicle trial runs are growing in real numbers in California, and so are the crashes coming from the self-driving cars. The California Department of Motor Vehicles has increased the number of companies given testing permits up to 65 this year, with 18 being added since 2017. These companies are now testing 658 AVs with more permits issued this year, nearly doubling the test fleet from 326 vehicles in 2017. Vehicle collisions have more than doubled — up to 67 so far this year, up from 29 last year. The biggest challenge for companies testing AVs in California and other parts of the world has been having their test cars rear-ended. Since the beginning of 2016, 111 AV crashes have taken place in California with 71 being in fully autonomous modes during the collisions. Of the 71 incidents, 51 of them involved the test vehicle being struck from behind. […]