Rumors have swirled for months asserting that Apple is designing a self-driving car, and maybe the company is, but a report today that the Cupertino giant scouted out a high-tech road testing site in the East Bay doesn’t show that the iPhone maker is working on autonomous driving.
The GoMentum Station at the former Concord Naval Weapons Station in central Contra Costa County is a testing ground not just for self-driving cars, but also Internet-connected vehicles and other advanced automotive technology.
Apple executives communicated to the government agency that manages the site earlier this year, according to emails obtained by this newspaper from the Contra Costa County Transportation Authority. The emails were originally obtained by the Guardian following a public records request, which also shows interest by Google and Tesla in the site.
But none of the emails show that Apple wanted to use the site for self-driving cars.
“We do not have an agreement with Apple,” said Linsey Willis, spokeswoman for the transportation agency. “We just had a meeting with Apple, and they didn’t say what project they were interested in the site for.”
While companies don’t need California’s permission to test on the non-public roads of the Concord test site, most companies that are well on their way toward testing self-driving technology — such as Google and Tesla — have also sought permits to test on public streets.
Apple is not one of them. As of Friday, here are the companies with permits from the California Department of Motor Vehicles to test self-driving cars on public streets:
Volkswagen (3 cars)
Mercedes Benz (5 cars)
Google (48, including 25 of Google’s own two-seater prototype cars)
Delphi (2)
Tesla (12)
Bosch LLC (2)
Nissan (3)
Cruise Automation (2)
BMW (1)
Above: Modified versions of Acura’s flagship sedan, the RLX, are being used for automated drive testing and development at the GoMentum Station in Concord. Apple also expressed interest earlier this year in using the site for testing automotive technology, but didn’t reveal what kind. (Photo courtesy of Honda)
