Rumours have been around for a while that Apple is creating a self-driving car. Documents procured by The Guardian under a public records act request show that the Apple car project is not a rumor; in fact the project is well underway.
Called "Project Titan," the goal of Apple's top-secret project is to produce a fuel-free vehicle that looks like a minivan, reports the New York Daily News.
Records show that engineers from Apple's secretive Special Project group met with officials from GoMentum Station in May. In correspondence obtained by the Guardiant, Apple engineer Frank Fearon wrote: "We would ... like to get an understanding of timing and availability for the space, and how we would need to coordinate around other parties who would be using [it]," reports The Guardian.
Located on the old Concord naval weapons station in California, the GoMentum Station is a former World War II facility with 20 miles of paved highways and city streets. Closed to the public and guarded by the military, the base is "the largest secure test facility in the world" for the "testing validation and commercialization of connected vehicle (CV) applications and autonomous vehicles (AV) technologies to define the next generation of transportation network infrastructure."
Mercedes-Benz and Honda have already carried out experiments with self-driving cars behind its barbed-wire fences.
Reports indicate that the GoMentum Station includes highway overpasses, railway crossings and other typical road features for testing autonomous vehicles.
Confirming talks with Apple, Randy Iwasaki, the executive director of the Contra Costa Transportation Authority which owns GoMentum Station, has told The Guardian that the owner has signed a non-disclosure agreement with Apple. "We can't tell you anything other than they've come in and they're interested," Iwasaki said, according to Apple Insider.
