Apple’s self-driving car dream is dead, but its old proving ground will go on testing other self-driving cars.
Waymo, the robotaxi company owned by Alphabet, has acquired the 5,500-acre proving ground in Wittmann, Arizona that Apple used to test prototypes for Project Titan, according to Maricopa County filings.
Waymo purchased the massive site for $220 million from Route 14 Investment Partners, a shell company linked to Apple. Route 14 previously bought the testing site for $125 million in 2021 before Apple ultimately canceled its multibillion-dollar car project.
Now, those same test roads will be driven on by Waymos.
The site includes a 115-acre city course, a 35-acre vehicle dynamics area, a four-mile oval track, and a freeway course designed for autonomous vehicle testing, according to Waymo. The company said the facility will be used to simulate driving scenarios in a controlled environment to test and improve its autonomous driving system Waymo Driver. Testing at the site will include rider-only testing, motion control testing, and operational training workflows.
The Arizona site will become Waymo’s third proving ground, joining sites in California and Ohio.
The news comes as Waymo has quickly expanded its fleet and coverage area. In total, Waymo said it will soon cover more than 1,400 square miles across 11 cities. The company bragged that its coverage area will eventually be larger than the entire state of Rhode Island, which is roughly 1,200 square miles.
Waymo has also been preparing to scale up its robotaxi fleet. The company announced earlier this year that it plans to expand production at its Phoenix-area factory to tens of thousands of vehicles per year.
Earlier this year, the company started letting employees and guests take trips in vehicles powered by its sixth-generation autonomous driving system. That newest version of the Waymo Driver is running in its new Ojai robotaxis, which are built on base vehicles supplied by Chinese automaker Geely.
The system is designed to work across different types of vehicles. For now, that includes the new Ojai taxis and Hyundai Ioniq 5 SUVs. Waymo’s current fleet of Jaguar I-Pace vehicles will continue running on its fifth-generation technology, but the company received its final delivery of I-Pace cars last year.
Beyond its robotaxi expansion, Waymo is also giving its old EV batteries a second life. Last week, the company announced a new partnership with B2U Storage Solutions to repurpose its old batteries to help stabilize power grids.
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