A method and an apparatus for testing software for autonomous vehicles by means of a loop simulation involves hardware in the form of one or more real autonomous vehicles able to carry out autonomous test drives in the real world. In response to a work order given by a user, a check is automatically carried out in order to determine which vehicles, among a plurality of real autonomous vehicles which are able to carry out autonomous test drives on globally distributed test tracks in the real world, are currently available for one or more tests defined in the work order. The performance of the software tests and the test drives is then automatically planned and coordinated.