It looks like Apple"s rumored self-driving car is looking for a place to roam. New documents uncovered by The Guardian point to Apple’s quest to find a secure place to test their new automobile technologies.
Documents obtained by a public records request show that Apple is considering Concord naval weapons station near San Francisco. If Apple chooses the location, it will be conveniently near to their Cupertino campus.
The naval station has 20 miles of paved concrete, but tellingly, the location is closed from the public, in keeping with Apple’s traditional preference for secrecy. Other car-makers already have permits from the state of California to test their self-driving cars on public roads, something Apple may have to do eventually when the company is further along in development.
As Apple’s plans with Project Titan have become increasingly less secret, and with its recent hiring spree of top automotive talent, it looks like Apple is pursuing similar ambitions to Google and traditional car makers in the development of self-driving technologies.
As with Android and iOS, the pursuit of self-driving cars appears to set up another head-to-head battle between the makers of the dominant mobile operating systems, Google and Apple. Moreover, Apple"s new initiative appears to escalate their existing automotive competition, with Android Auto and Apple’s CarPlay battling for mindshare inside traditional automobiles.
Source: The Guardian