Rumors have been circulating for a while about the suspected electric self-driving vehicle, called Project Titan, but this correspondence obtained by the Guardian is the first documented confirmation of its existence.
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With competitor Google already finishing its road-ready prototype for a self-driving vehicle, Apple is looking to hit the test track with its own driverless auto. The only thing that the company can say is that Apple inquired about the testing facility and that it was interested. The paper said that it had received the documents under a public records act request.
Apple has tasked employees in “an anonymous office building” in Sunnyvale, Calif., about four miles from the company’s Cupertino headquarters, with developing automotive technologies, The Guardian said.
Fearon had wrote to GoMentum, “We are hoping to see a presentation on the… testing grounds with a layout, photos, and a description of how the various areas of the grounds could be used”. Apple has refused to comment on the matter.
This facility has more than 20 miles of paved roads, overpasses, city streets, and highways, all of which is not only closed off to the public, it’s protected by the U.S. military.
According to Jack Hall, programme manager for connected vehicles and autonomous vehicles at GoMentum Station, Apple has “shown interest” in the facility but has not reached any agreement for testing there.
Apple is not one of them, though neither is Honda – a company that has already publicized the fact that it’s testing self-driving technology at the high-security Concord site. The facility on which Apple seeks to carry out tests is more than 2000 acres.
These days if there’s research being done into something vaguely technological, you can bet Apple is hiding in the shadows doing some ultra-secret version of it for itself.
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Apple’s supposed self-driving electric vehicle efforts may be real – and far enough along for testing, according to a new report from the Guardian.
