The long-rumored Apple Car might be hitting the road sooner than even the most optimistic of us had expected. According to a report from The Guardian’s Mark Harris, the company is already scouting locations to test out the technology, showing that the car is more developed than previous reports have suggested.
Citing documents it obtained under a public records act request, The Guardian said Apple has met with officials from the GoMentum Station, a large former Navy weapons station near San Francisco that is being changed into a high-security testing area for self-driving cars. GoMentum says its 5,000-acre facility, which features 20 miles of paved roadway, “is the largest secure test facility in the world and will become the center” of connected vehicle applications and autonomous vehicles technologies — something that could appeal to a secretive company like Apple.
The facility has previously been used by companies including Mercedes-Benz and Honda to test out prototypes of self-driving vehicles, since they can be hidden inside the base away from prying eyes.
California’s Department of Motor Vehicles has issued permits to six companies, including Google and Tesla, to test autonomous cars on public roads. Apple is not one of them, and it has thus far kept Project Titan closely under wraps.
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. The company leased the building in 2014, the Guardian said, citing documents, and modified the facility to include labs and workshop spaces, as well as tighter security features.
Randy Iwasaki, director of the Contra Costa Transportation, which owns GoMentum, told the Guardian he couldn’t provide further details because “we had to sign a non-disclosure agreement with Apple.”
Since the Apple car may still take some time, in the meanwhile, here’s a video from Honda testing its automated tech at GoMentum Station:
