Apple self-driving cars are real — one was just in an accident

An Apple self-driving car was involved in an accident in California, the technology company said in a filing to the state's Department of Motor Vehicles that confirmed speculation that it has begun testing such vehicles on the road.

The accident happened last week when the test vehicle, a Lexus SUV, was rear-ended by a 2016 Nissan Leaf, according to the filing on the DMV website.

Apple has kept tight wraps on its ambitions for self-driving cars, declining to publicly acknowledge them until it wrote a letter to U.S. transportation regulators in late 2016 urging them not to restrict testing of the vehicles.

Last year, Apple secured a permit to test autonomous vehicles in California.