Phrase Meaning – How Did You Make It This Far vs How Have You Made It This Far

Both questions are asking how an individual acquired knowledge about the apples and can be used interchangeably in most circumstances. There is however a slight difference in nuance.

How did you come to know? emphasises questioning the mechanism by which the information was obtained. Did you search for the information, stumble across it or were given it? It also carries an implicit question of why did you want to know?

How do you know? still questions the mechanism and, as you say, carries the same basic meaning, but has no implicit why.

Fair question, but check out Macmillan. You are mistakenly assuming that the meaning of drive is confined to Definition 2:

drive (v.) to control and guide the movement of a vehicle ⇒ "to drive a car"

while ignoring the equally valid used mentioned in Definition 10:

drive (v.) to transport or be transported in a driven vehicle

Similarly, if you examine CDO's definition carefully, you can see it allows for "How far did we drive?"

drive (v.) to move or travel on land in a motor vehicle, especially as the person controlling the vehicle's movement: They are driving to Scotland on Tuesday.

That example sentence is valid, and it does NOT imply that everyone in the car will have a turn at the steering wheel. Moreover, the words "especially as" in that definition are crucial; they can be interpreted as "not necessarily limited to."