The nugget of news in the Guardian’s big scoop yesterday—the one that supposedly “confirmed” that Apple is building a self-driving car—is that at least one Apple engineer inquired about and visited a 5,000-acre decommissioned naval base called GoMentum Station.
The Contra Costa Transportation Authority (CCTA), which owns the property and its 20 miles of cracked roadway, crumbling buildings, tunnels, train crossings, overpasses, sidewalks, curbs and firehydrants, has been been shopping it around as the perfect test bed for “connected vehicle (CV) applications and autonomous vehicles (AV) technologies.”
Apple wanted a look-see, and according to the CCTA (which has a lot to learn about Apple nondisclosure agreements), it got one.
You can see it too.
The promotional video below, posted last month on YouTube, was shot by Honda, which ponied up $250,000 in March to join the GoMentum Station consortium. Whether Apple has also joined is not known.
.
Follow Philip Elmer-DeWitt on Twitter at @philiped. Read his Apple (AAPL) coverage at coins2day.com/ped or subscribe via his RSS feed.