“Apple Inc., Google parent Alphabet Inc. and several car makers are seeking large expanses of real estate in the San Francisco Bay Area for their autonomous-car operations, a top landlord in the area said Thursday,” Eliot Brown reports for The Wall Street Journal.
“Victor Coleman, chief executive of Hudson Pacific Properties Inc., told analysts that “we are seeing a definitive movement” from autonomous-car research-and-development facilities, which ‘seem to be a hot demand item,'” Brown reports. “‘We’re seeing the Toyotas of the world, the Teslas of the world, BMWs, Mercedes. Ford now is out in the marketplace looking for space,’ he said on the landlord’s quarterly investor call. ‘I haven’t even mentioned the 400,000 square feet that Google’s looking to take down and the 800,000 square feet that Apple’s looking to take down for their autonomous cars as well.'”
Brown reports, “Apple is in the process of expanding a team that had about 600 employees last year, according to people familiar with the matter.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: The expansion of Project Titan continues.
SEE ALSO:
Apple’s lease of old Sunnyvale Pepsi bottling plant hints at Project Titan expansion – March 1, 2016
Apple silent on mysterious noises coming from clandestine complex – February 27, 2016
Loud, late-night ‘motor noises’ emanate from Apple’s secret vehicle testing center – February 11, 2016
Apple Car: Forget ‘electric,’ think hydrogen fuel cells – February 20, 2015
Inside Apple’s top-secret ‘Titan’ electric car project – March 13, 2015
Apple working with Intelligent Energy on fuel cell technology for mobile devices, sources say – July 14, 2014
North Carolina regulators approve Apple’s 4.8-megawatt fuel cell facility at Maiden data center – May 23, 2012
New aerial images of Apple’s planned NC fuel cell, solar farms published – April 7, 2012
Apple’s massive fuel cell energy project to be largest in the U.S. – April 4, 2012
Apple patent application reveals next-gen fuel cell powered Macs and iOS devices – December 22, 2011
Apple patent app details highly-advanced hydrogen fuel cells to power portable devices – October 20, 2011
Liability laws and legal precedents on cars is a whole different ball game than the liabilities on phones. This is a very bad idea. And with all the money Apple has, they are the ultimate ambulance chaser bait.
No real evidence that Apple are pushing autonomous car features beyond the natural slow integration that we are/have seen for some years i think. Keep hearing it but I really don’t see fully autonomous cars on our standard roads within 5 years. The liability aspect is perhaps the biggest stumbling bloc of all.
I have to ask, what ‘liabilities’ would cause a problem?
My sister works in the insurance industry and says the industry will assess the risks, set limitations, cover their arse by offloading high risks to multiple Lloyds investors and offer whatever competitive cover they can. It’s a new area for them but nothing so unusual that they haven’t faced many times before.
The entire field of AI (Artificial Intelligence) is poorly understood by anyone at this point, and has had a consistently high record of failure and intransigence. No one really knows how well autonomous driving cars is going to work out, if it works out at all.
Google is only a dalliance in the field, despite all the hype. Take one look at the spinning camera they stick on top of their cars and you know it’s more a project of their usual GEE WHIZ publicity than a serious effort to innovate.
Computer guys are not going to just walk in.
Yeah…we know.
Apple should be looking for space in states like Texas where the cost of doing business aren’t so burdensome.
Or Michigan, where there is already installed infrastructure, underused plants, and thousands of skilled automotive engineers and workers.
Detroit or Flint, for example, would give anything to have Apple help turn around their mismanaged cities.
Texas is better IMHO because of the tax laws that are very complimentary to attracting new business… not to mention the fact that there is MASSIVE amounts of available land. Michigan is a quagmire of liberal policy gone bad. California is the next Michigan for the same reasons.
Maybe the mayor of Cupertino will now recognize he might have made a mistake complaining about Apple not giving him enough “taxes.” They will certainly will think of more friendly locations after his attempts at a shakedown.
APPLE should consider building their auto plant in the midwest. The rust belt is desperate for jobs and would bend over backwards to do a deal.
Look at places like Toledo where they build the Jeep — with a good, experienced auto-building workforce.
That’s an expensive choice for 800,000 square feet. If it was just for manufacturing Detroit would be cheaper, and has plenty of workers with the right experience. Makes me wonder what they are really up to.
This is the problem with having too much money — Cook blows it on ridiculously overpriced real estate.
Hey Cook, since you have so much extra money to spend, how about upping wages for iPhone production workers to reasonable levels?
You are one mega-idiot!
He’ll do that under the coming Trump administration. Apple has always obeyed all laws. If compelled to raise production facilities in the US as Trump has insisted, it will do so. Wages will of course conform to federal and union standards. They will naturally increase, as the cost of living is higher in the US than in Asia. Just an economic fact. I expect Apple will raise their prices, but again that’s just capitalism. Because of it Samsung could have a giant resurgence since, being Foreign, they’re under no similar compunction, and they can clean Apple’s clock on the high end. Thus deprived of level competition, Apple is sure to fail, spectacularly! — a consummation devoutly to be wished by oh so many for oh so long. (Why, I’ve never totally understood, but then again in High School I hated the Quarterback because he had all the cheerleaders at his beck and call… Hmm. Maybe I do understand)
I happened into a Tesla showroom last night in Palm Desert. They have a tesla chassis on display, and just seeing this made me realize just how disruptive this electric car revolution is to the auto industry. The design is so clean and efficient. It reminded me of the Mac Pro Aluminum Case when it first came out, and all off the interior parts were beautifully integrated within the case. This was at a time when all PC’s looked like a rats nest on the inside. Google “tesla chassis” to see what I mean, although pictures don’t do it justice